FRONT COVER ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR INTEGRATIVE BRAIN FUNCTION ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR INTEGRATIVE BRAIN FUNCTION
Annual Report 2016 ANNUAL REPORT 2016
ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function 770 Blackburn Rd Monash University VIC 3800 Australia cibf.edu.au INSIDE BACK COVER The ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function
Annual Report 2016 Collaborating and Partner Organisations
COLLABORATING ORGANISATIONS
PARTNER ORGANISATIONS
AFFILIATE ORGANISATIONS Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS
About ...... 4
Highlights ...... 6
Message from the Director ...... 8
Message from the Chair ...... 10
Organisation and Management ...... 11
Research ...... 16
Neuroinformatics ...... 27
Personnel ...... 28
Contributing Institutions ...... 33
Industry Engagement ...... 35
Education ...... 36
The Brain Dialogue ...... 40
Neuroethics ...... 42
Sponsorships ...... 44
Additional Funding ...... 45
Plans for 2017 ...... 48
Publications ...... 50
Presentations ...... 53
Media ...... 60
Awards ...... 62
Performance KPIs ...... 64
Finances ...... 66
Acronyms ...... 68
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 5 About ABOUT The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of technologies. Specifically, we are seeking to Excellence for Integrative Brain Function (Brain understand how the brain integrates information Function CoE) was established to address one at multiple scales, from nerve cell electrical and of the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st biochemical activity through patterns of activity century – understanding how the brain interacts in large scale circuit networks to yield complex with the world. To achieve this aim, the Centre’s behaviour in three key integrative daily-life research program is integrating the research of functions of attention, prediction, and decision- many of Australia’s leading scientists in the fields making. of experimental and theoretical neuroscience, neural modelling and neuroengineering. Led Crucial to our research program is the by Monash University, the Centre includes development of new experimental instruments researchers from The University of Queensland, and computational tools to complement existing The University of Melbourne, The University neuroscience techniques. One such development of Sydney, Australian National University and is our Primate Brain Mapping project that aims The University of New South Wales. Centre to create a systematic, publicly available digital investigators are also based at the Queensland repository for data on the connections between Institute of Medical Research and 11 other different cortical areas, in a primate species. partnering institutions in Europe, Japan and the These technologies are used across our research USA. themes, and we collaborate on implementing software programs to fast-track data and results to The Centre’s research outcomes are aimed at researchers around the world. achieving major social and economic advances through the development of new brain-based
6 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT ABOUT VISION To understand how the brain interacts with the world, by focusing on the complex brain functions that underlie attention, prediction and decision-making.
MISSION enormous scientific impact of understanding the The Centre’s researchers are studying the integrative functions of the brain, and ensure relationship between brain activity and behaviour that Australians benefit from the rapid advances at multiple spatial and temporal scales, to build being made in neurotechnologies. an integrated model of how attention, prediction Knowing how the activity of brain cells mediates and decision-making occurs. This is being the way we interact with the world creates accomplished by a research program based on tremendous possibilities. Imagine practical four interconnected themes: Cells and Synapses, vehicles controlled by thought, machine-brain Neural Circuits, Brain Systems, and Models and interfaces to enhance our natural senses, Technologies. The ambitious aim of the Centre, technologies for accelerated learning, portable to understand the complexity of integrative brain instruments for diagnosing brain diseases, and function, requires fundamental investigations into biomimetic robots. The Centre has formed a the principles of brain structure and function. critical mass of Australian brain researchers Brain Function CoE is developing predictive with a deep knowledge of brain anatomy models of brain processes for the development of and physiology, neuronal networks, neural novel neural technologies for patentable devices circuits, brain systems, human behaviour, and and software. The Centre fosters a community neurotechnologies. The Centre’s establishment of scholars by mentoring future research is now leading the Australian effort in this new leaders skilled in multi-disciplinary approaches field of knowledge, training a new generation that are melding neuroscience, physics, and of multidisciplinary leaders of brain research, engineering. Multi-pronged, multi-disciplinary and building and strengthening our links to the approaches have the ability to capture the world’s best brain research teams.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 7 Highlights HIGHLIGHTS
Primary Schools drawing competition – The Centre ran a neuroscience drawing competition as part of Brain Awareness Week, 14 - 20 March 2016. Among the winners was Tahlia (age 11).
Marmoset brain architecture interactive website – release of the publicly available digital repository for data on the connections between different cortical areas in a primate species.
The British Medical Association Illustrated Book Award – George Paxinos, et al.’s book ‘Atlas of the Human Brain.’
Top 1% cited papers in Neuroscience – Professor Rosa’s team paper “Organizing principles of human cortical development - Thickness and area from 4 to 30 years: Insights from comparative primate neuroanatomy,” was published in Cerebral Cortex.
8 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Centre members were instrumental in the formation of The Australian Brain Alliance – a working group comprised of research organisations and professional associations advocating the need for a national brain initiative was published in Neuron.
Brain Function CoE Symposium at the 36th Annual ANS meeting – sharing centre research with the Australasian Neuroscience community.
2016 Annual General Meeting – held in conjunction with the Australasian Neuroscience Society’s annual meeting in Hobart. All Centre Board members, researchers, fellows, scholars and professional staff were invited to take part in a series of events comprising an annual general meeting, science meeting, administrators meeting and ECR workshop.
Accelerating the growth of Australia-based entrepreneurs – The Centre was the founding academic partner in the Bridge to MassChallenge program, giving Australia-based entrepreneurs access to the training and resources necessary to accelerate Newsworthy research – Professor Egan’s paper their growth and global competitiveness. Five Australian “Overdrinking, swallowing inhibition, and regional startups were awarded a place in the Bridge to brain responses prior to swallowing” is in the top MassChallenge Boston bootcamp. 5% of ALL publications scored by altmetric, and was picked up by 48 news outlets.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 9 Message from the Director MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR Throughout 2016 we have continued to integrate associated ECRs to attend conferences and the research projects across the Centre’s themes facilitate inter-lab exchanges. The ECR committee and nodes, facilitated by research meetings in is also coordinating teaching sessions between April and December. The Centre’s annual science labs at each node to help ECRs from across the symposium and annual general meeting (AGM) different levels of neuroscience (cells, circuits, and were held in conjunction with the Australasian systems) to break down the barriers for ECRs to Neuroscience Society (ANS) in Hobart in collaborate. December, 2016. The full-day science meeting was attended by over 100 researchers and presented The Centre helped to bring the first Bridge to the Centre’s research over the past 12 months, as MassChallenge start-up competition to Australia well as providing a forum to discuss the research in late 2016. The Australian component of the program in 2017. The half-day AGM covered the competition finished with 10 start-ups chosen for operational and non-research matters. During an international bootcamp in Boston in February the main program of the ANS conference a Brain 2017. Amongst the 10 winning teams, selected Function CoE symposium entitled, ‘Connecting from over 200 applicants, were developers the Dots – understanding integrative brain of medical, educational and small business function’ was presented and generated significant innovations. Along with the Centre, the NSW, interest in the Centre’s integrative research. Victorian and South Australian Governments supported the competition, as well as Microsoft In May 2016 the Brain Function Centre of Australia and the Federal Department of Industry, Excellence Advisory Board Chair, Professor Innovation and Science. Lyn Beazley, launched Australia’s first research- dedicated MR-PET scanner at Monash Biomedical The Bridge to MassChallenge Australia Imaging, Monash University. This state of the art bootcamp was the Centre’s first major activity to scanner provides simultaneously acquired images support the development of an ecosystem for of brain structure, function, and metabolism neurotechnology start up companies. using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and The Brain Function CoE’s school art competition Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and is now for Brain Awareness Week held during 2016 available and being used by Brain Function CoE attracted over 470 entrants. The inaugural researchers. competition was open to primary schools around During the past year important new developments Australia and required entrants to create an in the Brain Function CoE’s Early Career artwork inspired by the thought: ‘I use my brain Researcher (ECR) community have taken place. to…’ Each of the three winning students was Meetings were held in several states to discuss awarded a brainy prize pack and certificate, and how funding could be used to encourage and their schools received a brainy prize pack and support ECRs. Domestic and international $1000 towards teaching aids. travel scholarships have been established to One internal area that we have focused on during address the clear need for ECR travel support. 2016 has been improving communications. To These scholarships are supporting funded and
10 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR strengthen our internal communications with I would like to thank my close colleague, friend Centre stakeholders we appointed Merrin and mentor, Professor Lyn Beazley who has been Morrison as Communications Officer. Merrin’s unflinchingly supportive as the Advisory Board work has focused on development of the new chairperson, and who has provided key leadership Brain Function CoE internal communications and strategic advice to myself and the Executive plan, website, intranet, and newsletters. We regarding the Centre’s research and non-research also welcomed Dr Adrian Carter who is a senior activities. The Board comprises members with research fellow at Monash University and joined outstanding careers in brain research, government the Centre as the coordinator of an exciting and industry, who have all been heavily engaged new program in Neuroethics. The program in monitoring and advising the centre activities. is examining the social, ethical and policy My sincere thanks to Profs John Funder, David van impacts of neuroscience research for Australia Essen and Ulf Eysel, and to Drs Amanda Caples and complements the knowledge sharing and and Allen Jones for their outstanding support for responsible research activities of The Brain the Centre’s researchers and research programs . Dialogue. Of course, the Centre would not continue to From 2017 the Centre will be the administering function if not for the support received from our organisation for the Australasian Brain Bee staff. They continue to work tirelessly to ensure Challenge, which is the Australasian arm of the Centre’s success and interact with (more an international neuroscience competition for than) 15 organisations that together comprise secondary school students. Dr Mar Quiroga the Brain Function CoE. I would particularly like has joined the Centre as the Education and to acknowledge the excellent work undertaken Brain Dialogue Officer with prime responsibility by the Centre Manager Dr Lisa Hutton, and the to manage the competition. Mar has a PhD Central Theme and Node Administrators in the in neuroscience and experience developing Administration team. educational resources for higher education. I sincerely thank all Centre researchers, fellows, To advance Australia’s brain research efforts, scholars and affiliates who have contributed to the Australian Brain Alliance, an initiative of the our 2016 Annual Report. I hope that you will enjoy Australian Academy of Science, has developed reading about the outcomes from the Centre’s the Australian Brain Initiative (ABI). The ABI’s research programs and about the Centre’s many goal is to ‘crack the brain’s code’, and aims to other activities related to understanding how the translate basic science into practical outcomes brain interacts with the world. by incentivizing a collaborative discovery process between industry, universities and research institutions. I am delighted that the Centre is a major contributor to the formation of the ABI with a number of Centre Chief and Associative Professor Gary Egan Investigators members of the Australian Brain Director, Brain Function CoE Alliance Steering Committee.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 11 Message from the Chair MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Throughout 2016 I have continued to be • Prof John Funder (Senior Fellow, Hudson impressed by the tenacity and ambition of the Institute of Medical Research), Brain Function CoE researchers and their exciting • Prof David van Essen (Director, Human research program. Prof Egan’s leadership has Connectome Project, Washington University, St ensured that the opportunities associated with a Louis, USA), large, multi-disciplinary and multi-organisational • Prof Ulf Eysel (Principal Investigator, Department research team are captured, and the operational of Neurophysiology, Ruhr University, Bochum, challenges are being professionally managed. Germany), • Dr Allan Jones (CEO, Allen Brain Institute, The Centre’s multidisciplinary publications are Seattle, USA), and clearly demonstrating the important advances • Prof Gary Egan (Director, Brain Function CoE, being achieved in brain research which would not Monash University) have been possible for one discipline or institution working in isolation. In line with the current The Board has made important recommendations emphasis on innovation and on links between regarding the Centre’s research, education and academe and industry, the Centre is alert to and industry engagement programs, which have actively pursuing the translational potential of our significantly strengthened the Centre’s programs. discoveries and technological advances. The Board’s advice regarding the techniques to engage researchers in large research initiatives In December, 2016 I had the opportunity to attend has been particularly important as the Centre’s the Centre’s second Annual General and Scientific research program has developed. meeting, where Brain Function CoE research and other programs were presented. I continue When first asked to Chair the Advisory Board I to be impressed by the Centre’s research results was impressed with the ambitious program put and the increasingly collaborative and integrative forward by the director, the chief investigators and program of research across the Centre’s scientific the executive team. I am now delighted to see disciplines and programs. the early successes of the Centre and I continue to be excited about the future potential for the I am delighted to be the Chair of the Brain Brain Function CoE to make important discoveries Function CoE Advisory Board and I am grateful about how the brain interacts with the world. I for the knowledge and expertise that each hope you enjoy reading about the achievements Advisory Board member brings to the board. of the Centre, as much as I have enjoyed being The board members ensure that we are aware involved with it. of key international developments and also strengthen our interactions and opportunities with government and industry. Their commitment is demonstrated by their willingness to travel long distances to Centre meetings and to join both late night or early morning video conferences. In 2016 Professor Lyn Beazley the Board members included Chair Brain Function CoE Advisory Board
• Prof Lyn Beazley (Chair, Past Chief Scientist of Western Australia), • Dr Amanda Caples (Deputy Secretary, Sector Development and Programs at Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Victorian State Government),
12 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Organisation and Management
CENTRE STRUCTURE ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT The Australian Research Council Centre of function and this endeavour requires fundamental Excellence for Integrative Brain Function was investigations into the principles of brain structure established in 2014. The Brain Function CoE and function. is funded by the Australian Research Council’s Centres of Excellence program combined In support of Brain Function CoE’s ambitions, The with contributions from the Administering, Centre works with researchers based at leading Collaborating and Partner Organisations. The universities throughout Australia, including vision of The Centre is to address one of the Monash University, The University of Queensland, greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century The University of Melbourne, The University of – understanding how the brain interacts with the Sydney, Australian National University and The world by focusing on the complex brain functions University of New South Wales. Investigators are that underlie attention, prediction and decision- also based at the Queensland Institute of Medical making. The Centre’s aim is an ambitious one: to Research and 11 other partnering institutions in understand the complexity of integrative brain Europe, Japan and the USA.
Brain Function CoE Funding Organisation participating organisations Australian Research Council
Funding Agreement
Administering Organisation Monash University
Collaborative Agreement
Collaborating Organisations University of University of New University of Queensland South Wales Sydney
Australian National University of University Melbourne
Partner Agreement
Partner Organisations International Human Brain Project Neuroscience Queensland Institute of Riken (Switzerland) Coordinating Facility Medical Research (Japan) (Sweden)
The Francis Crick National Institute of International School Cold Spring Harbour Institute Health and Medical of Advanced Studies (USA) (UK) Research (France) (Italy)
National Institute of Weill Cornell New York University Duke Mental Health (USA) (USA) (USA) (USA)
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 13 GOVERNANCE ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT The Advisory Board provides strategic direction comprises representatives from each research and advice regarding all aspects of the Centre’s theme, collaborating institution and senior Centre activities, and is comprised of Australian and personnel. Actions and initiatives are developed international members of the neuroscience and and implemented by the Management and broader research community. The Executive Administration Team. Centre Co-ordinators provide Committee oversees the Centre’s operations and guidance in key program areas.
Brain Function CoE governance structure Australian Research Council
Advisory Board
Director
Executive Committee Administrative Team
Coordinators
Non-research and Research administrative Activities activities
14 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT • Prof David van Essen, Director, Human ADVISORY BOARD Connectome Project, Washington University, St The Advisory Board provides strategic direction Louis, USA and advice regarding all aspects of the Centre’s • Prof Ulf Eysel, Principal Investigator, activities to the Director, and is comprised of Department of Neurophysiology, Ruhr University, Australian and international members of the Bochum, Germany neuroscience and broader research community. • Dr Allan Jones, CEO, Allen Brain Institute, It meets twice per year – once in person and a Seattle, USA second time virtually. Board members are invited to join key scientific meetings. Advisory Board Administrative Support: • Dr Lisa Hutton, Board Secretary, Members have significant experience in Centre Manager collaborations involving multiple large • Ms Vicki McAuliffe, Board Secretariat, organisation as well as international neuroscience Centre Administrator activities, industry, and government engagement. SENIOR LEADERSHIP Advisory Board Members: • Prof Gary Egan, Director, Brain Function CoE, Centre Director Professor Gary Egan, oversees Monash University the Centre’s research and operations while • Prof Lyn Beazley, Chair, Past Chief Scientist of playing a key role in the development of industry Western Australia engagement activities. Deputy Director, Professor • Dr Amanda Caples, Sector Development Marcello Rosa, is instrumental in the development and Programs at Department of Economic of international collaborations and partnerships. Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Associate Director Professor Jason Mattingley plays Victorian State Government a critical role in the strategic development of key • Prof John Funder, Senior Fellow, Hudson initiatives in the Education and Training Program Institute of Medical Research and acts as an alternate for Professor Rosa.
Pictured above left to right: Professor Ulf Eysel, Principal Investigator, Department of Neuropsychology, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany; Prof Gary Egan, Director, Brain Function CoE, Monash University; Professor Lyn Beazley, Chair, Past Chief Scientist of Western Australia; Dr Allen Jones, CEO, Allen Brain Institute, Seattle, USA; Dr Amanda Caples, Lead Scientist at the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Victorian State Government; Professor John Funder, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute of Medical Research. Not pictured: Professor David van Essen, Director, Human Connectome Project, Washington University, St Louis, USA.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 15 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE • Ms Danielle Ursino, Node Administrator, The Executive Committee oversees the Centre’s Australian National University operations and comprises representatives from • Ms Cindy Guy, Node Administrator, University each research theme, collaborating institution and of Sydney senior Centre personnel. In 2016, the Executive • Dr Emma Schofield, Node Administrator, Committee met monthly and comprised: University of New South Wales • Ms Roxanne Jemison, Node Administrator, • Prof Gary Egan, Director, Brain Function CoE, University of Queensland Monash University ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT • Prof Marcello Rosa, Deputy Director, Brain PROGRAM COORDINATORS Function CoE, Monash University Brain Function CoE program Coordinators provide • Prof Jason Mattingley, Associate Director, management and guidance for specialised Brain Function CoE, Brain Systems, University of non-research programs that address societal, Queensland education, computational and industry issues • Dr Lisa Hutton, Centre Manager raised by brain research. • Prof Pankaj Sah, Neural Circuits, University of Queensland • Neuroinformatics • Prof Greg Stuart, Cells and Synapses, – Dr Wojetk Goscinski Australian National University – Dr Pulin Gong • Prof Peter Robinson, Models and • Industry Technologies, University of Sydney –Prof Gary Egan • Prof Michael Ibbotson, University of • Knowledge Sharing through The Brain Dialogue Melbourne – Dr Rachel Nowak • Prof George Paxinos, University of New South • Education Wales – Prof Jason Mattingley • Equity A quorum is present at these meetings when four – Prof Sarah Dunlop or more of the six collaborating organisations are • Ethics and Society present. – Prof Jakob Howhy Executive Committee Administrative support: • Neuroethics • Ms Vicki McAuliffe, Centre Administrator, – Dr Adrian Carter Committee Secretary EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM COMMITTEE The Administrative Team is comprised of The Centre continues to support Early Career administrative and management personnel to Researchers (ECRs), including PhD students, by provide support to the Director and the Executive offering professional support, development and Committee in the conduct, communications, and mentoring. Supporting new brain researchers is administration of research. The personnel are critical for retaining their scientific talents and located at each of the collaborating organisations ensuring future excellence in Australian brain throughout Australia. The team meets monthly to research. The Early Career Researcher Committee plan and conduct activities across Collaborating continues to grow and represent emerging brain Organisations: researchers within the Centre from multiple disciplines across Australia. The Committee has • Dr Lisa Hutton, Manager implemented an inter-lab exchange program, • Ms Vicki McAuliffe, Central Theme travel awards and state-based events to foster Administrator networking and collaboration. • Ms Jessica Despard, Central Theme Administrator The ECR Committee meets monthly and reports • Ms Trudi Gilmore, Central Theme to the Executive Committee twice per year. Administrator The inaugural representatives on the ECR • Dr Elizabeth Paton, Brain Dialogue and committee were: Education Officer • QLD: Ms Jessica McFayden (Chairperson) • Dr Maria del Mar Quiroga, Brain Dialogue and • NSW: Dr Sammy Lee Education Officer • ACT: Dr Ehsan Kheradpezhouh • Ms Tenille Ryan, Node Administrator, • VIC: Dr Sharna Jamadar University of Melbourne
16 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Brain Function CoE Australian Research Council (Funding body) organisational structure
Advisory Board
Centre Administration ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT
Brain Function CoE Director
Brain Function Brain Function CoE Deputy CoE Manager Director Centre Centre Researchers Brain Function Coordinators CoE Secretariat Chief Computation Investigators
Partner Industry Investigators Research Nodes University of University of Associate Monash University Melbourne Sydney Brain Dialogue Investigators Director University of New Australian National University of Centre Fellows South Wales University Queensland (Post Docs) Education
Centre Scholars Equity (PhD Students) Research Themes
Cells Circuits Systems Models Neuroethics
Brain Functions
Attention Prediction Decision
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 17 Research
BRAIN SYSTEMS FOR ATTENTION AND PREDICTION RESEARCH RESEARCH One of the greatest scientific challenges of our The Centre is complementing a number of time is to understand the link between brain international programs. Our focus on integrative activity and human behaviour. The ARC Centre brain function was specifically chosen so that we of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function is could cooperate with these groups to maximal an Australian focus of the international quest mutual benefit. Our international partners include to understand how the activity of brain cells leaders of the European Human Brain Project, mediates the way we interact with the world. We the Japanese Brain Mapping by Integrated are studying how electrical and biochemical brain Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/ activity is coordinated across regions and across MINDS) project, the US Human Connectome time, to enable adaptive behaviour. Our research Project, and the USA BRAIN Projects amongst is elucidating the core principles of brain activity others. underlying perceptual and cognitive functions in our everyday lives. We are studying three key The Centre’s research program is focusing on the integrative functions: attention, predictive coding, following: and decision making. In summary, our aim is to • revealing how the brain integrates information understand how the brain interacts with the world. in large-scale networks to yield complex behaviour; To achieve our aim the Centre’s research • investigations of consciousness as a program is integrating the work of many of multidimensional integrative brain function Australia’s leading researchers in the fields using systems and computational neuroscience of experimental neuroscience, cognitive approaches; neuroscience, computational neuroscience, • the development of neuroanatomical atlases neural modelling and neuroengineering. To and neural technologies for both research and develop a deep understanding of brain function for translation into neurotechnology devices and depends on the collection of accurate sensory software tools; and information, and the analysis and modelling of • growing the new generation of future research data based on theoretical and computational leaders at the interfaces between neuroscience, neuroscience models. These investigations are psychology, physics, and engineering, to create being undertaken non-invasively in humans and an international competitive culture of combined in experimental animal models in multi-scale, theoretical and experimental neuroscience. multidisciplinary investigations that are beyond the reach of any single laboratory.
18 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 1. HOW THE BRAIN INTEGRATES INFORMATION IN LARGE-SCALE NETWORKS TO YIELD COMPLEX BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH
Understanding attention, decision- somatosensory) is filtered on the basis of high level making and prediction using cognitive sets in the service of flexible and adaptive psychophysics, brain imaging and neural goal-directed behaviour. Across a series of experiments stimulation we have focused on how regions of the prefrontal and This research program combines novel behavioural parietal cortices coordinate bottom-up and top-down experiments with functional brain imaging brain activity during simple selective attention tasks (e.g., (functional MRI (fMRI) and Electroencephalography spatial cueing, visual search), decision-making tasks (e.g., (EEG)) and neural stimulation (Transcranial probability judgments) and prediction tasks (e.g., oddball magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct- detection, statistical learning). We have used Bayesian current stimulation (tDCS)) in human participants approaches to model the functions of these networks, to determine the neural circuits responsible for and in parallel we are endeavoring to understand the attention, decision-making and prediction. The underlying neural mechanisms at the level of individual focus is on characterising how stimulus information neurons through single-cell recordings carried out in from the external environment (visual, auditory, rodents and non-human primate models.
Improvements in attention and decision- were reliable for both trained and untrained tasks. The making following combined behavioral benefit of anodal tDCS was specific to left prefrontal training and brain stimulation. stimulation, and was absent for stimulation delivered In recent years there has been a significant commercial without concurrent training. Computational modeling interest in ‘brain training’ - massed or spaced practice results revealed that left anodal stimulation combined on a small set of tasks to boost cognitive performance. with training caused an increase in the brain’s rate of Recently, Centre researchers have combined cognitive evidence accumulation for both tasks. Thus tDCS applied training regimes with brain stimulation to try and during training has the potential to modulate training maximize training benefits, leading to task-specific gains and give rise to transferable performance benefits cognitive enhancement. It remains unclear, however, for distinct cognitive operations through an increase in whether the performance gains afforded by such regimes the rate at which the brain acquires information. can transfer to untrained tasks, or how training and Reference: Filmer HL, Varghese E, Hawkins GE, Mattingley stimulation affect the brain’s latent information processing JB, Dux PE. Improvements in attention and decision- dynamics. To examine these issues, we applied tDCS making following combined behavioral training and brain over the prefrontal cortex while participants undertook stimulation. Cerebral Cortex. (2016) 1-8. decision-making training over several days. Anodal tDCS increased performance gains from training that critically
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 19 The role of predictive coding in receptive Centre researchers are now directly testing Predictive field formation in visual cortex Coding theory by combining multi-electrode array recordings from several consecutive areas in the visual Predictive coding is a theory of brain function that pathway of rodents. They are directly assessing the has been hypothesized to explain a wide range of central hypothesis of predictive coding by simultaneous observations including the hierarchical organization of recording from three consecutive areas of the visual (sensory) cortex, the architecture of cortical microcircuits, pathway (the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), visual area the structure of cortical receptive fields, single cell 1 (V1) and visual area 2 (V2). By measuring the interaction integration properties and synaptic plasticity. The of bottom-up and top-down information at the level of theory proposes that cortical microcircuits perform V1 using a novel information theoretic analysis of the computations that can be applied universally to different space-time dynamics of neural populations, we can test types of input, regardless of cortical area or modality. for consistency with the theoretical description provided by predictive coding. The analyses evaluate the flow of Consequently the theory has the potential to provide a RESEARCH experimental information through the visual pathway in unified view of integrative brain function. A key aspect space and time, in comparison to the Predictive Coding of the theory describes how bottom-up (afferent) and theory predictions of where and when information should top-down (efferent) information interact in local cortical flow. An important advantage of this approach is that it microcircuits, in such a way that only information that can be performed without knowledge of the stimuli or was unpredictable, based on top-down input, is passed the internal brain states that may be affecting the neural up the cortical hierarchy for further processing. response.
Sensory decision making in rodents Centre researchers are currently recording sensory Over the last decade, new methods have emerged for evoked activity in anaesthetised and awake (head-fixed) the characterisation of neuronal activity at the level of rodents engaged in a sensory discrimination task. The single cells and neuronal populations. Our strategy project combines three levels of investigation. At the is to use these new methods to relate a detailed and cellular level we are studying synaptic and dendritic quantitative characterisation of animal behaviour to integration of sensory input in single neurons. At the the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms at population level we are investigating synergy and work in the brain. Sensory processing provides a good redundancy in coding across the neuronal population, setting for such investigations. This project is combining and correlating this with the animal’s behaviour. And two-photon calcium imaging of single cells and at the system level we are modeling and undertaking neuronal populations in vivo with whole-cell and juxta- computational analyses to provide a framework for cellular recordings to link neuronal activity with sensory interpretation of how the data recorded at the cellular perception in two sensory modalities - whisker touch and network levels may be used in decision-making. and vision. Both sensory systems comprise well-studied pathways and have elegant structural organisation.
The visual cortex contains a modular representation of the environment with a topographic map of the visual field and the whisker area of somatosensory cortex is arranged in a map of cell aggregates (“barrels”) with a one-to-one correspondence with whiskers. This means that sensory signals are channeled through a restricted population of neurons and can be efficiently sampled via recording electrodes and imaging, and can be targeted for modulation using optogenetics techniques. The functional circuitry underlying cortical activity has been extensively studied, but the connection between neuronal activity and sensation and perception is far from resolved.
20 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT RESEARCH A new way to study how the brain prioritises vibrations than light flashes. And neuronal activity was attention to sensory information correspondingly enhanced in the sensory cortex region As a first step to investigating sensory decision making, that processes whisker vibrations. In dark spaces, a rat Centre researchers have studied how rats decide what gets more information about the environment from sensory information is most deserving of attention. A its exquisitely sensitive facial whiskers than from its way to determine how rat brains subconsciously prioritise eyes. Whereas in daylight, in an open field test, what sensory information, which is a skill critical to survival in a rat sees is likely to be more useful than what it feels any animal including humans, has been developed by through its whiskers. The neuronal circuits between the the research team who trained rats to respond in a set whiskers, eyes and brain are now established and Centre way to two different stimuli; either a vibration through the researchers are now exploring how the rat brain chooses whiskers or a flash of light. and prioritises attention to the sensory information that is most appropriate for its circumstances. The trained rats were exposed to one stimulus much more than the other in testing sessions. Rats responded Reference: Lee CC, Diamond ME, & Arabzadeh E. faster and more accurately to the most common stimulus. Sensory prioritization in rats: behavioral performance and For example, in “whisker sessions” they were quicker to neuronal correlates. Journal of Neuroscience 36 (2016) respond to vibrations, and better able to detect weak 3243-3253.
Neural signatures of decision making in the and how this information can change when certain parts primate cortex of the relevant neural circuit are inactivated by lesions or Researchers in the Brain Function CoE are investigating reversible methods including cooling and optogenetics. the electrophysiological activity of groups of neurons Isolating the relevant aspects of neural activity in such in the prefrontal, parietal and insular cortices of non- changing conditions will require the development of human primates that have been trained to perform new computational analysis techniques. We will also complex tasks that involve paying attention to changes address the changes in the neural circuits that underlie in the environment, and adjusting behavioural choices the performance of the cognitive tasks, by conducting accordingly. We are currently using multielectrode diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional connectivity techniques to monitor how the information encoded by studies prior to, and after extensive training. trains of action potentials relate to the animal’s behaviours,
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 21 2. CONSCIOUSNESS AS A MULTIDIMENSIONAL INTEGRATIVE BRAIN FUNCTION RESEARCH Centre associate researchers have extended the Centre’s study of integrative brain functions to include scientific studies aimed at understanding the fundamental constructs of consciousness. The researchers are studying consciousness as a multidimensional integrative brain function using systems and computational neuroscience approaches.
A new mathematical approach to mathematical formulae underpinning different explain consciousness measures of causality used to help explain Our brain constantly gathers information consciousness. IIT was best able to isolate causal including thoughts, memories, sensory neural interactions across the whole network experiences, motivations, and encodes them rather than summing individual interactions in neural connections. Consciousness is more and removing those deemed irrelevant to than just the sum of this encoded information. consciousness. Intuitively, this property makes IIT According to one of the leading consciousness ideal to measure consciousness. The usefulness theories, Integrated Information Theory (IIT), the of information geometry to neuroscience extends fundamental essence of consciousness is how beyond consciousness to any study where causal well the information is melded into a whole. interactions are at play – such as where the Comparing how IIT measures consciousness with activity of one neuron causes a neighbouring alternative measures that have been proposed is neuron to fire – could benefit from its ability to difficult. The mathematical models used to analyse isolate meaningful interactions from background complex brain data sets use different measures noise. The application of information geometry of probability and causality including mutual techniques has enabled researchers to commence information, transfer entropy, stochastic interaction testing Integrated Information Theory as the and Granger causality, in order to compute a leading theoretical neuroscience theory of quantitative metric for consciousness states, such consciousness. as coma or wide awake. Reference: Oizumi M, Tsuchiya N, & Amari S. These mathematical theories can now be Unifed framework for information integration compared using a form of mathematics based on information geometry. Proceedings called information geometry. The researchers of the National Academy of Sciences 113 (2016) used information geometry to compare the 14817-14822
22 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT How we think about consciousness may be decisions for people with severe brain injuries. This in hampering consciousness research and end- turn could mean additional tests such as brain imaging of-life decision-making are needed to assess a brain injured person’s cognitive Who has the higher level of consciousness: a person abilities. Our conceptualisation of consciousness sipping coffee, or someone in bed asleep? Consciousness may change how we develop and test new theories researchers and the public generally would normally give of consciousness. The researchers argue that the former a “higher” level of consciousness. Levels of consciousness studies must take into account the fact consciousness are also enshrined in medicine through
that consciousness consists of multidimensional states RESEARCH diagnostic scales such as the Glasgow Coma Scale. But with the requirement that there is more than one level the concept of consciousness levels is mostly theoretical of categorization associated with consciousness. and has never been closely scrutinised. Recently, Centre associate researchers have argued that the conventional Reference: Bayne T, Hohwy J, & Owen AM. Are there idea that there are levels of consciousness is wrong. Whilst levels of consciousness? Trends in Cognitive Sciences people can be ordered on the basis of their height or 20 (2016) 405-413. blood pressure, the researchers argue that we cannot rank order how conscious they are. Consciousness has many dimensions, such as the ability to form new memories or recognize voices and feel pain, that do not necessarily change in a parametric manner that can be conveniently ordered.
If this argument is correct, current attempts to find a single measure that reflects different consciousness levels may be misguided. While the idea of a sliding scale of consciousness levels has its origins in severe brain injury, the same concept is applied in theories that predict which non-human animals are conscious. We argued that the notion of a single consciousness scale does not fit with what we know about consciousness. An alternative way of categorising consciousness may be via dimensions that change in different ways in different types of consciousness. Understanding the nuances of consciousness states could lead to more ethical end-of-life
A comparative study of the roles of the studied in detail. In the proposed project, we will use cortical and subcortical routes for processing a rodent model that allows us to silence either the fear in humans and rodents cortical or subcortical route using viral- expressed Responding to fear is an essential behavioural response. designer drugs (DREADDs) while recording neuronal However, following exposure to a severely traumatising activity during auditory fear-conditioning. In addition event, such normal physiological responses can disappear, to the animal model, human participants will undergo culminating in the development of anxiety disorders. Even a similar auditory fear-conditioning while recording though behavioural aspects of the fear response are well magnetoencephalographic activity. understood, the underlying neuronal mechanism remains We will use computational modeling to simulate unclear. Two main ascending pathways for sensory inputs the effects of same silencing of either the cortical to the amygdala have been identified, which are called the or the subcortical routes in humans. This approach cortical and the subcortical route. The subcortical route will improve the knowledge about the neuronal is currently thought to process fear-related processes circuitry that is recruited during fear and clarifies the that are rapid and non-conscious, whereas the cortical understanding about inter-species difference that route is thought to regulate conscious processing during is critical to be able to translate animal models to fear learning. Even though both pathways have been human. investigated, the exact role of each pathway has not been
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 23 3. NEUROANATOMICAL ATLASES, COMPUTATIONAL MODELS AND NEUROTECHNOLOGY DEVICES RESEARCH Centre researchers are in the forefront of the development of neuroanatomical atlases and neural technologies for use in neuroscience research and for translation into neurotechnology devices and software tools.
Towards a comprehensive atlas of highly correlated (r 5 0.83) with those obtained cortical connections in a primate brain: by an expert, who examined in detail histological mapping tracer injection studies of the sections for each individual. The present procedure common marmoset into a reference enables comparison and visualization of large digital template datasets, which in turn opens the way for integration The marmoset is an emerging animal model and analysis of results from many animals. Its for large-scale attempts to understand primate versatility, including applicability to archival brain connectivity, but achieving this aim requires materials, may reduce the number of additional the development and validation of procedures experiments required to produce the first detailed for normalization and integration of results cortical connectome of a primate brain. from many neuroanatomical experiments. Here we describe a computational pipeline for co-registration of retrograde tracing data on connections of cortical areas into a 3D marmoset brain template, generated from Nissl stained sections. The procedure results in a series of spatial transformations that are applied to the coordinates of labeled neurons in the different cases, bringing them into common stereotaxic space. We applied this procedure to 17 injections placed in the frontal lobe of nine marmosets which revealed visualizations of cortical patterns of connections. Comparison between the results of the automated and human-based processing of these cases reveals that the centers of injection sites can be reconstructed, on average, to within 0.6 mm of coordinates estimated by an experienced neuroanatomist. Moreover, cell counts obtained in different areas by the automated approach are
24 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT A digital atlas of connections in the marmoset brain This project is producing the first comprehensive digital map of the connections in a primate brain, and will use advanced statistical ‘data mining’ techniques to explore the network characteristics of this system. The connectivity map will allow new insights into how the brain works as an integrated and highly interconnected RESEARCH system, and will help us to understand how information processing in the brain changes as result of diseases and normal ageing. The initial project goals of data collection and the development of the platform for data sharing was recently achieved.
An automated way to combine and share MBAP automated procedures. The procedures capture, brain data from international neuroscience combine and share brain data from histological slides laboratories both newly generated and archived. The brain maps Neuroscientists desperately need a brain atlas or generated are almost as precise as those generated connectome that not only shows how different regions by expert neuroanatomists using the same slides. connect to each other, but also reveals how much brains Researchers can determine how much confidence they differ from individual to individual. Whilst for some animal can place in their interpretations of the MBAP data as species a great deal of neuroanatomical data has already all data and computational tools are openly shared been collected, it is stored in research laboratories and freely available. Importantly the Marmoset Brain in different countries, on different types of histology Architecture Project is helping to reduce the number of slides, and with much of the data being unpublished. animals needed to achieve a complete connectome of In an international project led by Centre researchers the marmoset brain cortex since a lot of the data already brain connectivity information is being collated using a exists. series of high-throughput, automated image processing Reference: Majka P, C haplin TA, Yu HH, Tolpygo A, Mitra techniques and computational analyses, called the PP, Wójcik DK, and Rosa MG. Towards a comprehensive Marmoset Brain Architecture Project (MBAP). atlas of cortical connections in a primate brain: mapping Neuroscientists need detailed anatomical information tracer injection studies of the common marmoset into about the average brain and about how brains differ a reference digital template. Journal of Comparative between individuals, which is now being provided by the Neurology 524 (2016) 2161-2181.
A high resolution 3D-MRI atlas of the used in histology. The project has thus far resampled the human brain data on the plane of section of the brain anatomy space Following the publication of a landmark rat brain atlas defined at the Montreal Neurological Institute space. in 2015, the MRI/DTI Atlas of the Rat Brain, Centre The anatomical delineations will be in comparable detail researchers are now constructing a 3D MRI atlas of the as those of the classic rodent histological atlases. As in human brain using imaging data licensed from Duke the rat atlas, the human atlas will display MRI contrasts University, USA. The human brain atlas will provide an together with detailed delineations at regular intervals unprecedented ultrahigh resolution (50 micron) atlas (1mm apart) throughout the human brain. and use different MRI contrasts as different stains are
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 25 RESEARCH Enabling combined anatomical tracing, animal electrophysiology) are greatly enhanced when electrophysiological and MRI studies of guided by high quality anatomical images and brain non-human primates maps. Until recently, researchers in the Brain Function Studies combining high-resolution anatomical tracing CoE lacked the capacity to perform this type of work of connections with non-invasive measures including due to absence of physical infrastructure including diffusion tensor imaging, and structural and functional experimental animal cages suitable for macaque connectivity methods, are crucial for the informed monkeys, and an MRI-compatible stereotaxic frame. The interpretation of both human brain studies and animal recent commissioning of a new experimental facility at model studies. In addition, many invasive functional the Monash Biomedical Imaging Centre has provided approaches to understanding brain function (e.g. alert the opportunity to address this gap in our capability.
Models of brain activity: neural field theory consistent with observations. Comparison with the predictions and comparison with experiment eigenmodes of an experimental anatomical connectivity Centre researchers have developed a neural field matrix confirmed these results, and permitted the theory model of the cortico-thalamic system to predict relative strengths of intra-hemispheric and inter- and analyze the brain activity eigenmodes of the bi- hemispheric connectivities to be approximately inferred hemispheric brain, with a particular focus on the spatial from their eigenvalues. The model results are consistent structure of the modes. The eigenmodes of a single with the viw that brain activity occurs in cortico-thalamic brain hemisphere were found to be close analogs of eigenmodes rather than in discrete ‘networks’ and spherical harmonics, which are the natural modes of opens the way to new approaches to analyse and the sphere. Instead of multiple eigenvalues being understand the brain. equal, as in the spherical case, cortical folding in the Reference: Robinson PA, Zhao X, Aquino KM, Griffths brain splits them to have distinct values. Inclusion in the JD, Sarkar S, Mehta-Pandejee G. Eigenmodes of brain model of inter-hemispheric brain connections between activity: Neural feld theory predictions and comparison homologous regions via the corpus callosum leads with experiment. Neuroimage 142 (2016) 79-98. to further splitting of the modes that depends on the symmetry or antisymmetry of activity between brain hemispheres, and the strength and sign of the inter- hemispheric connections.
The symmetry properties of the lowest observed eigenmodes were strongly constrained by the inter- hemispheric connectivity strengths and uni-hemispheric mode spectra, and we predicted that most spontaneous brain activity would be symmetric between hemispheres
26 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Models demonstrate that communication combine information from brain regions with different hubs that integrate information across the functions have characteristic patterns of energy-related brain are associated with genes that regulate gene activity. energy production. Reference: Fulcher BD & Fornito A. A transcriptional Communication ‘hubs’ in the brain are highly connected signature of hub connectivity in the mouse connectome. brain regions that share similar patterns of gene Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113 expression that include many of the genes that regulate (2016) 1435-1440. energy production. These communication hubs are RESEARCH critical to integrating information between different parts of the brain that underpins all thoughts, emotions and complex behaviours. The study was conducted by analysing the activity of over 17,000 genes in 213 regions of the mouse brain, including communication hubs identified from detailed maps of brain connectivity. Dysfunctional or damaged communication hubs have been linked to brain disorders such as schizophrenia, autism and dementia. Problems with energy regulation are already known to play a role in certain types of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and schizophrenia. In summary, the brain hubs that
Preparing for the social impact of • strategies discussed included foresight exercises; brain research science-with-society engagement programs; A report on the Organization for Economic Cooperation embedding ethicists within brain research projects; and Development (OECD) Workshop ‘Neurotechnology and making ethical consideration a condition of and Society: Strengthening Responsible Innovation in research funding Brain Science’, Washington, DC, 15-16 September, 2016. • the goal is to shift the culture of brain research towards one that is more responsive to society’s The Essentials needs, without damaging the quality of the research. • brain research and neurotechnology development How can neuroscience and society work together to are rapidly advancing, raising social, ethical and legal maximise the benefits of new brain research? That questions was the question concerning delegates at a recent • representatives from international brain initiatives, OECD meeting. Rachel Nowak of the ARC Centre ethicists, regulators, and brain-tech companies met in for Integrative Brain Function at Monash University DC to discuss how to ensure society gets what it wants reports from the workshop in this opinion piece in The and needs from neurotech and brain research Australian (Paywall).
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 27 4. MENTORING THE NEXT GENERATION OF FUTURE AUSTRALIAN RESEARCH LEADERS AND THE CREATION OF AN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVE CULTURE OF COMBINED THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE
International Neuroscience Australian Brain Alliance is planning a conference A proposal for Australia’s own national brain and series of workshops in 2017-18, to gather project has been put forward by the Australian input from scientists, government and the public Brain Alliance to help design the initiative. RESEARCH RESEARCH Centre researchers are helping to lay the Reference: Australian Brain Alliance Steering foundations of an Australian proposal to launch a Committee. Australian Brain Alliance. Neuron national brain project. Called the Australian Brain 92(2016) 597-600 Initiative (ABI), its “overarching goal …is to ‘crack the brain’s code’” through a coordinated program of interdisciplinary brain research. The ABI will include brain developments in education, health, and computing, as well as neurotechnology devices to record and control brain activity. To encourage the translation of discoveries into practical outcomes, the ABI will set up “multidisciplinary science incubators” to connect researchers with industry.
Leading the initiative is the Australian Brain Alliance, led by the Australian Academy of Science steering committee with 28 members, including many from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. Developing the proposal will involve further defining the ABI’s goals, engaging industry partners, and establishing a research strategy that will deliver practical outcomes for the Australian community. The proposed ABI plans to catalyse Australian brain science and spur practical innovation. The
Education Visual Neuroscience Experiments allows students to “record” the electrical activity in cells that respond to motion, found Online simulation lets students experiment with visual brain in a part of the brain called MT or V5. The cells respond cells in a virtual world differently depending on the direction of the motion in Virtual experiment lets you stimulate visual neurons in the visual field — some have their biggest response to a different ways and record and listen to how they respond. movement at 15 degrees from vertical, some at 37.5 degrees Hands-on experiments — ones where students get to touch, from horizontal, and so on. Without these cells your tennis feel and listen — can make neuroscience make sense. game would be shot. Visual Neuroscience Experiments can be But they are getting increasingly difficult to run. Technical used as a demonstration, or more advanced students can run advances mean that huge amounts of data, collected experiments to work out a particular cell’s preferred direction from multiple recordings, are becoming the norm. The of movement, or to get a handle on noise — how cells vary average student prac cannot cater for this. And neither their responses to identical signals. ethics committees nor students want to use animals in their experiments unless it’s strictly necessary. Enter Visual Reference: Quiroga M, & Price NS. Simulated in vivo Neuroscience Experiments, a virtual monkey (or human) brain Electrophysiology Experiments Provide Previously Inaccessible cell ready for probing, and backed by a computer model that Insights into Visual Physiology. Journal of Undergraduate generates large datasets for analysis. Neuroscience Education 15 (2016) A11.
28 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Neuroinformatics
Dr Wojtek Gosckinski (Program coordinator) Dr Pulin Gong (Program coordinator) RESEARCH Brain Function CoE’s neuroinformatics program Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. supports the Centre’s neuroscience research in • 14 Centre projects are now running on three key areas: the provision of access to data MASSIVE across Monash University, University of processing, advanced analysis and visualisation Queensland, University of Sydney and University resources; supporting and enhancing the of Melbourne, logging over 600,000 CPU core publication of Centre tools and data; and building hours of computing time in 2016. partnerships with international neuroinformatics • The MASSIVE-CIBF mirror of the Human infrastructure initiatives. Connectome Project saw a release of data from 500 subjects on the M2 system, and an additional TOOLS AND DATA REPOSITORY 900 subjects on the M3 system (available for early Experimental data and computational models are adopter useage), and now supports 22 users from a major output of Brain Function CoE. The Centre’s across Australia. tools repository makes these important resources • Program Coordinator Dr Wojtek Goscinski has accessible to interested Centre and external been appointed as the Chair of the International researchers, thus facilitating collaborations across Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) different nodes and institutions. The repository Infrastructure Committee, which advises the INCF also facilitates the publication of models and data on its infrastructure program including DataSpace, where possible. TrainingSpace and INCF’s role in coordinating the neuroinformatics infrastructure landscape, After a Centre-wide review of data and models particularly with regard to scientific gateways and used across Nodes, a catalogue has been virtual laboratories. established documenting these available tools. In addition to this catalogue, an online repository for The newly launched M3 system is in an Early sharing Brain Function CoE data and models has Adopter phase during which time MASSIVE is been developed and further expanded in the form only admitting neuroinformatics and structural of a GitHub website. The addition to this repository biology users. The system currently has 18 include MEA data from Paul Martin’s group, as well neuroinformatics tools and that list is growing as data analysis and methods developed by Peter regularly. Brain Function CoE researchers are Robinson and Pulin Gong. welcome to request an account to utilize the new system, and provide feedback or requests for Templates and procedures are currently in software installations. development to facilitate the sharing of data, methods and codes, and to ensure all tools are DATA SHARING BETWEEN CIBF AND shared in a standardized format. Procedures around HUMAN BRAIN PROJECT sharing data on the GitHub site will be finalised and The European Human Brain Project (HBP) has distributed to relevant CIs in April 2017. expressed interest in accessing Brain Function CoE datasets, and making them publicly available GROWTH IN AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIP to the HBP community. In particular, HBP have a WITH MASSIVE keen interest in the marmoset neuroanatomical In 2015, Monash University provided funding atlas data created at Monash University and the to Brain Function CoE to become an Affiliate University of Sydney. Based on the established Partner of the Multimodal Australian ScienceS GitHub data sharing site, negotiations will begin Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE) to build a model and data sharing capability computing facility (www.massive.org.au). In 2016, between the Centre and HBP. the affiliate partnership saw rapid growth:
• Centre researchers participated in the launch of the M3 system on the 29th of February alongside Dr Alan Finkel, Australian Chief Scientist and Steve Oberlin, Chief Technology Officer of
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 29 Personnel
CHIEF INVESTIGATORS NEUROINFORMATICS
Gary Egan Marcello Rosa Jason Mattingley Ehsan Arabzadeh Director Deputy Director Associate Director, Leader Decision-Making Monash University Monash University Leader Brain Systems Australian National University of Queensland University
Marta Garrido Ulrike Grünert Michael Ibbotson Arthur Lowery University of Queensland University of Sydney Leader Attention Monash University University of Melbourne
Paul Martin George Paxinos Steve Petrou Peter Robinson University of Sydney University of New South University of Melbourne Leader Models and Wales Technologies University of Sydney
Pankaj Sah Stan Skafidas Greg Stuart Leader Neural Circuits University of Melbourne Leader Cells and University of Queensland Synapses Australian National University
30 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATORS PROGRAM COORDINATORS NEUROINFORMATICS
Lisa Hutton Maria del Mar Quiroga Elizabeth Paton Sarah Dunlop Pulin Gong Centre Manager Outreach and Education Outreach and Education Women in Neuroscience Neuroinformatics and Monash University Offcer Offcer (to July, 2016) University of Western Computational Resources Monash University Monash University Australia University of Sydney
Merrin Morrison Silvia Pongracic Jessica Despard Wojtek Goscinski Jakob Hohwy Communications Offcer Central Theme Central Theme Project Offcer Neuroinformatics and Society and Ethics Monash University Administrator and Node Administrator Computational Resources Monash University Monash University Monash University Monash University
Janelle Giling Trudi Gilmore Vicki McAuliffe Rachel Nowak Adrian Carter, Central Theme Central Theme Project Central Theme Administrator Director, The Brain Neuroethics Administrator Offcer and Node (to October, 2016) Dialogue Monash University Monash University Administrator Monash University Monash University Monash University
Cindy Guy Roxanne Jemison Danielle Ursino Node Administrator Node Administrator Node Administrator University of Sydney University of Queensland Australian National University
Tenille Ryan Node Administrator University of Melbourne
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 31 PERSONNEL PARTNER INVESTIGATORS Farshad Mansouri – Monash University Michael Breakspear – Leader, Prediction, Nicholas Price – Monash University QIMR Berghofer Fabio Ramos – University of Sydney Mathew Diamond – International School for Advanced Olaf Sporns – Indiana University, USA Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy Naotsugu Tsuchiya – Monash University – International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Sean Hill Trichur Vidyasagar – University of Melbourne Facility; the Blue Brain Project; the Human Brain Project, – Curtin University Stockholm, Sweden Charles Watson – Aix–Marseille University, Marseille, France Viktor Jirsa CENTRE FELLOWS G. Allan Johnson – Duke University, North Carolina, USA Nafseh Atapour – Monash University – University of Sydney David Leopold – National Institute of Mental Health; Tahereh Babaie NIH Neurophysiology Imaging Facility, Maryland, USA Gursharan Chana – University of Melbourne Troy Margrie – MRC National Research Institute of Calvin Eiber – University of Sydney Medical Research, London, UK Timothy Feleppa – Monash University Henry Markram – Brain Mind Institute; the Blue Brain Teri Furlong – University of New South Wales Project; Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (EPFL), Saba Gharaei – Australian National University Lausanne, Switzerland Veronika Halasz – University of Queensland Partha Mitra – Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York, USA Sharna Jamadar – Monash University – University of Melbourne Tony Movshon – New York University, New York, USA Tim Karle – Australian National University Keiji Tanaka – RIKEN Brain Sciences Institute, Ehsan Kheradpezhouh Wako, Japan Sammy Lee – University of Sydney Jonathan Victor – Weill Cornell Medical College, Anton Lord – University of Queensland New York, USA Piotr Majka – Monash University Roger Marek – University of Queensland ASSOCIATE INVESTIGATORS Hamish Meffn – University of Melbourne – University of Queensland Derek Arnold Anand Mohan – Monash University – Monash University Sofa Bakola Babak Nasr – University of Melbourne – Australian National University John Bekkers Alexander Pietersen – University of Sydney – University of Melbourne Anthony Burkitt James Roberts – QIMR Berghofer Medical Vincent Daria – Australian National University Research Institute Paul Dux – University of Queensland Emma Schofeld – University of New South Wales Alex Fornito – Monash University Guilherme Silva –Australian National University Pulin Gong – University of Sydney Matthew Tang – University of Queensland Geoff Goodhill – University of Queensland Dongping Yang – University of Sydney Ted Maddess – Australian National University
32 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT PERSONNEL CENTRE SCHOLARS PROFESSIONAL STAFF Sahand Assadzadeh – University of Sydney Shi Bai – Monash University Ashleigh Chandra – University of Sydney Philip Cheng – University of Sydney Farah Deeba – University of Sydney Arzu Demir – University of Sydney Daniel Fehring – Monash University Daria Malmanova – Monash University Mariya Ferdousi – University of Sydney Elise Rowe – University of Queensland Natasha Gabay – University of Sydney Katrina Worthy – Monash University Yifan Gu– University of Sydney Sarah Hunt – University of Queensland AFFILIATE ACADEMICS Adam Keane – University of Sydney Eleonora Autuori – University of Queensland Thomas Lacy – University of Sydney Alexander Bryson – University of Melbourne Xiaochen Liu – University of Sydney Zhaolin Chen – Monash University Yuxi Liu – University of Sydney Giovanna D’Abaco – University of Melbourne Jessica McFadyen – University of Queensland Michael de Veer – Monash University Rania Masri –University of Sydney Mirella Dottori – University of Melbourne Kamran Mukta – University of Sydney David Garret – University of Melbourne Eli Muller – University of Sydney David Grayden – University of Melbourne Brandon Munn – University of Sydney Gabriel Jones – University of Melbourne Daniel Naomenko – University of Sydney Tania Kameneva – University of Melbourne John Palmer – University of Sydney Cliff Kerr – University of Sydney James Pang – University of Sydney Leo Lui – Monash University Momcilo Prodanovic – Monash University Snezana Maljevic – University of Melbourne Yang Qi – University of Sydney Svetlana Postnova – University of Sydney Nipa Roy – University of Sydney Steven Prawer – University of Melbourne Mihn–Son To – Australian National University David Reser – Monash University Rory Townsend – University of Sydney Kay Richards – University of Melbourne Connie Wang – University of Queensland Martin Sale – University of Queensland Natalie Zeater – University of Sydney Somwrita Sarkar – University of Sydney Iris Zhu – Monash University Robert Sullivan – University of Queensland MS Zobaer – Monash University Fabrice Turpin – University of Queensland Francois Windels – University of Queensland HONOURS STUDENTS Yan Wong – University of Melbourne Angus Begg – University of Sydney Hsin-Hao Yu – Monash University Kim Jeffrey – University of Queensland Genevieve Kieseker – University of Queensland Belinda Milne – Australian National University Subha Nasir Ahmad – University of Sydney Abrar Rahman – University of Sydney
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 33 PERSONNEL AFFILIATE POSTDOCTORAL AFFILIATE PHD STUDENTS RESEARCHERS Ali Almasi – University of Melbourne Chathurika Abeyrathne – University of Melbourne Tom Burns – Monash University Ben Allitt – Monash University Simone Carron – Monash University Duwage Alwis – Monash University Tristan Chaplin – Monash University Corinne Bareham – University of Queensland Amanda Davies – Monash University Oliver Baumann – University of Queensland Yadeesha Deerasooriya – University of Melbourne Konstantinos Chatzidimitrakis – Monash University Azadeh Feizpour – Monash University Shaun Cloherty – Monash University Masoud Ghodrati – Monash University Luca Cocchi – University of Queensland Kate Gillespie-Jones – Monash University Bill Connelly – Australian National University Michelle Hall – University of Queensland Christine Dixon – University of Queensland Anthony Harris – University of Queensland Hannah Filmer – University of Queensland Basem Hassan – University of Melbourne Leonardo Gollo – QIMR Berghofer Medical Institute Luke Hearne – University of Queensland Maureen Hagan – Monash University Suraj Honnuraiah – Australian National University James Henderson – University of Sydney David Kaplan – University of Melbourne Helena Huang – Australian National University Liliana Laskaris – University of Melbourne Beate Knauer – Monash University Conrad Lee – Australian National University Delphine Levy–Bencheton – University of Queensland Ting Ting Lee – University of Melbourne Andy Liang – University of New South Wales You Liang – University of Melbourne Natasha Matthews – University of Queensland Hannan Mazuir – Australian National University Matias Maturana – University of Melbourne James McFadyen – Monash University Adam Morris – Monash University Dulini Mendis – University of Melbourne John Morris – University of Queensland Phuong Nguyen – University of Melbourne Thanh Nguyen – University of Melbourne Grishma Pandejee – University of Sydney Christopher Nolan – University of Queensland Kirstie Petrie – University of Queensland Lena Oestreich – University of Queensland Yadollah Ranjbar – Australian National University David Painter – University of Queensland Katrina Richards – Monash University Margreet Ridder – University of Queensland Declan Rowley – Monash University Paula Sanz-Leon – University of Sydney Chase Sherwell – University of Queensland Mark Schira – University of New South Wales Cooper Smout – University of Queensland Cornelia Strobel – University of Queensland Artemio Soto-Breceda – University of Melbourne Ashika Verghese – University of Queensland Morgan Spence – University of Queensland Elizabeth Zavitz – Monash University Shi Sun – University of Melbourne Yajie Sun – University of Queensland Susan Travis – University of Queensland Lisa Wittenhagen – University of Queensland Shanzhi Yan – University of Queensland
34 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Contributing Institutions CONTRIBUTING INSTITUTIONS NATIONAL CONTRIBUTING INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS CONTRIBUTING INSTITUTIONS Austin Health Belgium University of Liege Australian College of Optometry Canada Australian National University Rotman Research Institute Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute China Capital Medical University Bionic Vision Australia Linyi People’s Hospital Charles Stuart University New York University, Shanghai Shanghai First People’s Hospital Curtin University Denmark Doherty Institute Aarhus University
Flinders University Finland University of Helsinki Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health France Aix-Marseille University Macquarie University Inria Sophia-Antipolis Monash University Institute de Neurosciences des Systèmes University Institute of France Murdoch Children’s Research Institute University of Grenoble
National Vision Research Institute Germany Humboldt University of Berlin Neuroscience Research Australia Jülich Research Centre Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Philipps-Universität Marburg Swinburne University of Technology Hungary The Alfred Hospital University of Pécs
The Black Dog Institute Iran Institute for Research in Fundamental The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital Sciences
University of Melbourne Israel Weizmann Institute University of New South Wales Italy University of Newcastle International School for Advanced Studies University of Queensland University of Bologna University of Sydney University of Pisa
University of Wollongong Japan Keio University School of Medicine Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative National Institute for Materials Science RIKEN Brain Science Institute
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 35 CONTRIBUTING INSTITUTIONS New Zealand USA University of Otago Carnegie Mellon University University of Waikato Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Duke University Norway Howard Hughes Medical Institute Oslo University Hospital Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai University of Bergen Indiana University University of Oslo Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University Poland Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology National Institute of Mental Health New York University Qatar Oregon Health and Science University Hamad Bin Khalifa University Rutgers university State University of New York Singapore University of California Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School University of New Mexico University of Rochester Spain Vanderbilt University Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Vollum Institute Sweden Weill Cornell Medical College International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facitlity (INCF) Karolinska University Hospital
Switzerland Blue Brain Project Human Brain Project Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
The Netherlands University of Groningen
Turkey Ege University
UK Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit The Francis Crick Institute University College London University of Cambridge University of Nottingham University of Oxford
36 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Industry Engagement INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT BUILDING THE BRIDGE TO MASSCHALLENGE AUSTRALIA The Brain Function CoE Industry Engagement program envisaged management and commercial exploitation of intellectual property through the establishment of an Industry Engagement Program, with industry and end user representation, as well as representation from the commercialisation group of each collaborating organisation. The first objective of the program has been to develop an industry engagement, innovation and entrepreneurial support program to manage the commercial exploitation of intellectual property developed in the Centre. The first outcome of the program in 2016 was Director Gary Egan welcoming Amir Eldad, Entrepreneur-in-Residence the establishment of a Bridge to MassChallenge and formerly the MassChallenge Director of Global Partnerships. Australia.
The Bridge to MassChallenge Australia program was based in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, and involved participation by early startup companies. Over 200 applications were received for the startup bootcamps that were held in Melbourne (supported by Brain Function CoE), Adelaide and Sydney during early November, 2016. The ten national winners were announced in Sydney on 15 November, 2016 by the Minister for Innovation and Small Business, Hon Craig Laundy (see http://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ ministers/laundy/media- releases/10-high-flyers- boston-start-business-boost). The ten winners spent two weeks in Boston in February 2017 and five of the companies were successful in being fast tracked into the main MassChallenge Global Hub program in Boston scheduled for commencement in mid 2017.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 37 Education
Dr Elizabeth Paton, Program Officer (until July 2016) Dr Maria del Mar Quiroga, Program Officer (from July 2016 onwards)
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS INDUSTRY AND END USER ENGAGEMENT The ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Gary Egan, Ehsan Arabzadeh and Michael Brain Function’s Early Career Researcher (ECR) Ibbotson, and Advisory Board members Lyn Program aims to provide a network of support Beazley, Allan Jones, Ulf Eysel, and John Funder, for Centre-associated ECRs and enhance participated in the workshop by discussing their their career development. The ECR Executive views and answering questions on a variety of Committee was created in 2016 to plan and drive topics including collaboration, publishing, career activities with support from the Education Officer planning, gender equity, and transitioning to mid- and the Centre’s management team. Monthly career research positions. videoconference meetings were held throughout 2016 to support their activities. ECR SURVEY The 2016 ECR Executive Committee was formed To ensure we are supporting the Centre’s ECRs in by Jessica McFadyen (QLD, Chairperson), Dr the most beneficial way, all ECRs were asked to Sammy Lee (NSW), Dr Ehsan Kheradpezhouh complete a short survey about the ECR program. (ACT), and Dr Sharna Jamadar (VIC). A total of 59 ECRs participated in the survey. The survey results indicated the priority Centre activities for ECRs should be: ECR WORKSHOP The 2016 ECR Executive Committee and the 1. Strategic planning for a research career Centre’s Education Officer, Dr Maria del Mar Quiroga, organised a half-day ECR workshop, 2. Research collaboration held after the Centre’s Annual General Meeting 3. Alternative careers outside academia in December 2016. Twenty-six ECRs from the Centre’s six nodes participated in the workshop. 3. Publishing
The workshop included activities that helped The survey also provided ideas for specific the ECRs better understand the research being workshops and activities that the 2017 ECR undertaken by other ECRs within the Centre, Executive Committee will take into account when along with career planning and a call for 2017 planning their activities. committee members. Centre Chief Investigators
Attendees at the 2016 ECR workshop held in Hobart
38 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT ECR TRAVEL AWARDS
The ECR Executive Committee organised two rounds of travel awards during 2016. These awards were to facilitate ECR travel that benefited their research and/or careers. Applications were competitively judged and a total of eight ECR’s were awarded $10,000 collectively to travel to three international and five domestic conferences. EDUCATION
Natasha Gabay Maureen Hagan University of Sydney Monash University “I presented a poster and attended a “I attended the 2016 Australian two-day workshop at the 5th Biennial Neuroscience Society (ANS) and Brain Conference on Resting State Brain Function CoE meetings in Hobart. The Connectivity in Vienna, September 2016. exposure of my work to the Australian I am very grateful for the opportunity to neuroscience community was beneficial attend such an interesting, inspiring and for me and to the project. Both educational international conference. It was meetings provided excellent networking one of the most memorable and invaluable opportunities and the chance to receive experiences during my PhD.” diverse advice on my research and career. I met with researchers from across Australia as well as internationally. This was a great opportunity to integrate myself into the Australian neuroscience community.”
Lena Oestreich University of Queensland Calvin Eiber University of Sydney “I presented my work at the 6th Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference “I travelled to the 2016 Australasian in Shoal Bay. I had the opportunity to Neuroscience Society meeting, where I network and discuss my research with presented a poster featuring results from several of the Centre’s investigators and ongoing research. Thanks to the feedback other ECRs at the conference. It was a great I received, this research has now been opportunity that I am very thankful for.” submitted for publication. The opportunity to meet and interact with the greater neuroscience community over the course of the week has been invaluable in outlining the next investigative steps.”
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 39 EDUCATION
Rania Masri University of Sydney “I presented a poster and attended a two-day workshop at the 5th Biennial Conference on Resting State Brain Connectivity in Vienna, September 2016. I am very grateful for the opportunity to attend such an interesting, inspiring and Jessica McFadyen educational international conference. It was University of Queensland one of the most memorable and invaluable “In November 2016, I travelled to Shoal experiences during my PhD.” Bay NSW for the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference. I was fortunate enough to present in a key symposium alongside some brilliant speakers. I received some excellent feedback and met some inspirational researchers.”
Elizabeth Zavitz Monash University “I attended the Society for Neuroscience’s 2016 annual conference in San Diego, USA in part thanks to a generous international travel award from the Centre. At the conference I met a wide range of researchers and introduced my work on visual encoding to a broad audience. I received valuable feedback on my poster that will influence how I write the paper related to this work. Building and maintaining an international network from Australia can be difficult, so I was very grateful for this award. It has been valuable far beyond the costs that it covered.”
40 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT SECONDARY SCHOOLS Australian Brain Bee Challenge it works, aiming to dispel myths about brain The Brain Function CoE was successful in its bid disorders, and inspiring students to pursue brain- to host the Australasian Brain Bee Challenge related careers in medicine and research. (ABBC) from 2017 until 2020, appointing Professor The competition starts with an online quiz, Ramesh Rajan from the Department of Physiology, progresses through to regional finals and Monash University, as the National Coordinator. then a national final is held at the Australasian The ABBC is an annual neuroscience competition Neuroscience Society annual meeting. Here, for students in year 10 in Australia, and in year the finalists also attend scientific sessions and EDUCATION 11 in New Zealand. The competition encourages meet with neuroscientists. The overall winner is students to learn about the brain and how sponsored to attend the International Brain Bee the following year.
PRIMARY SCHOOLS Drawing competition Professor Lyn Beazley, neuroscientist and chair The Centre ran a neuroscience drawing of the Centre’s Advisory Board, led the judging competition as part of Brain Awareness Week, 14- panel, which included Chief Investigators and 20 March 2016. Brain Awareness Week is a global management staff. Winners received a prize pack campaign led by The Dana Foundation that aims containing brain related books, activities, puzzles, to increase awareness of the importance and and games. Each winner’s school received a brain current state of brain research in the world. related resource pack and a voucher to purchase further educational resources. We invited primary school students from around Australia to create a drawing inspired by the Centre researchers, including Marta Garrido, thought: “I use my brain to…”. Michael Ibbotson, Jason Mattingley, and Sharna Jamadar, visited the schools of the winners to Over 470 entries were received from school award the prizes and to speak about their work as children around Australia, including a remote neuroscientists. indigenous town in the Northern Territory. The entries were divided into three categories: The most popular entries were printed on canvas and displayed at the Centre’s nodes. A selection • Category 1: Foundation year (Prep) and Year 1 of the entries were printed on Centre Christmas (ages 5 – 7) cards and a gallery of the top entries was created • Category 2: Years 2 – 4 (ages 7 – 10) on The Brain Dialogue website • Category 3: Years 5 – 6 (ages 10 - 12) (www.cibf.edu.au/drawing-competition).
WINNERS PER CATEGORY
Foundation - Grade 1 Sebastian, age 6
Grades 5-6 Tahlia, age 11
Grades 2 – 4 Mia, age 7
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 41 The Brain Dialogue
Dr Rachel Nowak (Director) Dr Elizabeth Paton (Program Officer) Dr Maria del Mar Quiroga (Program Officer)
THE BRAIN DIALOGUE CONNECTING COMMUNITIES AND ZAP MY BRAIN – EXPLORING THE SHARING KNOWLEDGE IMPACT OF ELECTRICAL BRAIN The Brain Dialogue is a neuroscience engagement STIMULATION program that uses a Responsive Research and On July 21, The Brain Dialogue took its public Innovation framework to strengthen connections dialogue series on electrical brain stimulation to between end-users and researchers. Our aim is to Sydney. The forum was hosted at the Brain and facilitate knowledge sharing for mutual advantage Mind Centre at the University of Sydney and ABC to maximise the social, economic and scientific broadcaster Bernie Hobbs was the MC. Centre benefits of brain research. plain-language summaries, research papers and popular accounts of the research being discussed The communities we serve include: were circulated via social media prior to the forum to allow attendees and others to prepare for the • the Australian publics, who need to be kept event. A demonstration of transcranial magnetic abreast of the rapid progress in brain research, stimulation (TMS) gave the audience an authentic and the issues and opportunities it offers, and to insight into the technology. The event attracted 160 have a say in the research pathway people attending and more than 100 additional • investigators who benefit from insight into people watching a live video stream on Periscope. end-users’ needs and aspirations, allowing them Significantly 70% of the audience were non-scientists, to better align their research with public needs which is unusual for this type of event in Australia. • industry which benefits from knowing the Discussion topics ranged from recent discoveries Centre’s interests and capabilities. in electrical neuromodulation to the potential for remote-controlled clinical trials of the devices to the PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARIES need for safety and ethics guidance for home users. A core activity is publication of plain-language summaries of recently published Centre research. As Responsive Research and Innovation engagement The summaries translate complex ideas and aims to facilitate mutual learning in which the non- language, while also offering insights into how scientists learn from the experts and the experts neuroscience is performed. They provide public learn from the non-scientists, we surveyed both our access to the full repertoire of Centre research. expert guests and the audience after the event to determine whether this had occurred. According To foster discussion the Brain Dialogue also to the post-event survey, expert panelists changed publishes ’Ideas and Issues’ pieces on topics such their perceptions about the publics’ motivation and as artificial consciousness. knowledge, gained new insights from each other, and initiated new research. The audience ranked To encourage knowledge sharing, content the forum as “excellent” (55%) or “good” (37%) in produced by The Brain Dialogue is published the post-event survey. The event also led to media using a Creative Commons copyright license coverage about brain stimulation science on ABC’s Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0.). Future Tense and on Breakfast with Robbie Buck, This means anyone can adapt and reuse the 702 ABC Sydney. Forum discussion contributed to content, including for commercial purposes. the article ‘Information before regulation to a make Centre researchers use this content in a variety amateur brain stimulation safer’ in The Conversation. of ways, including presentations, reports, grant applications, media and on websites. We actively encourage this use.
42 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT A COMIC CALL TO CONTEMPLATE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES To motivate the many stakeholders of neuroscience – THE LAY PUBLIC AND THE to contemplate the potential impact of advances PEER-REVIEW LITERATURE in brain research, in June 2016,The Brain Dialogue In collaboration with the Monash University launched a short animation ’Brain research is at School of Social Sciences, the Brain Dialogue is a tipping point and life, work and play will never investigating the use of open-access peer review be the same again’. The animation rounds up literature by non-scientists, using people who use a millennium or so of brain research, including brain stimulation at home as the first case study. describing the modern technologies that allow The project is funded by an Industry Engagement today’s neuroscientists to explore the brain in seed grant from Monash University. A workshop unprecedented detail. It ends by contemplating with key representatives from the scholarly how brain research will change our futures, and publishing industry was held to inform the study reiterating the Responsive Research and Innovation design. A workshop report was approved by imperative to consider society’s needs and views, Scholarly and Journals Committee of the Australian and for everyone to get involved. To facilitate Publishers Association. An online survey of lay users THE BRAIN DIALOGUE knowledge sharing, the animation was published of the scientific literature is complete. The final under a CC BY 4.0 license. stages of the research, and the dissemination of the findings through the peer-review literature and OECD WORKSHOP other means, will be completed in 2017. “Neurotechnology and Society: Strengthening Responsible Research SOCIAL MEDIA and Innovation in Brain Science” The Brain Dialogue Facebook page provides In September 2016, The Brain Dialogue was invited followers with curated content about new to attend an OECD workshop, “Neurotechnology discoveries in brain research from the Centre, as and society: strengthening responsible research well as the world’s top journals and news outlets. and innovation in brain science”, in Washington It now reaches over 2200 followers. The Brain DC. The aim of the workshop was to promote Dailogues uses a COPE (Content Once, Publish a coordinated global effort to understand and Everywhere) strategy — the same content is address what society needs from brain research pushed out through different social media streams and developing neurotechnologies. The workshop to ensure that we maximise the impact of our was hosted by the US National Academies resources. In 2016, The Brain Dialogue’s Twitter of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and feed increased its followers to over 500 followers attended by leading neuroscientists, funding across the globe, including research institutions, agencies, ethicists, regulators and brain tech med-tech organisations, women-in-science groups, companies from around the world. Following the journalists, and importantly, neuroscientists. A workshop, The Brain Dialogue published an article LinkedIn group was launched in 2016 to extend the ’Society’s brains trust has a decision to make,’ in capacity to share knowledge about neuroscience. The Australian newspaper. The Brain Dialogue was also invited to submit a paper to a special issue THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND of the Journal of Responsible Innovation. The ADVOCACY paper, ‘SWOT analysis of The Brain Dialogue, an During 2016 the Brain Dialogue published articles in Australian prototype Responsible Research and The Australian and The Conversation and prepared Innovation engagement program for neuroscience’, a brief on using Responsive Research and Innovation was authored by Drs Nowak and Paton, and will to link publics, industry, and neuroscience. The brief appear early in 2017. was shared with the Science and Commercialisation Policy Department at the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, the Public Policy department at the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, and the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, at the Australian National University.
Research translation comes in many forms. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after reading Galvani’s work on nerve function and ‘animal electricity’. Image from ‘Brain research is at a tipping point’ animation.
Zap My Brain - Sydney with MC Bernie Hobbs, Professor Colleen Loo, University of New South Wales and The Black Dog Institute, Dr Cynthia Forlini, University of Sydney, Professor Marom Bikson (screen) CUNY in New York, and Soterix Medical Inc, and Mr Peter Simpson-Young, Masters of Health Technology Innovation student at the University of Sydney.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 43 Neuroethics
Dr Adrian Carter (Program Coordinator)
NEUROETHICS PROGRAM NEUORETHICS Far-reaching consequences of neuroscience We were also invited to host a symposium at the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Neuroethics is an internationally recognised meeting in Newcastle, November 2016. This field that translates brain research in ways that symposium examined a wide array of issues maximise social benefit while minimising harm. raised by cognitive neuroscience research. The need for Neuroethics was recognised by a Topics included the impact of delusions and recent U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study conspiracy theories, gender and the brain, and of Bioethics report as part of the BRAIN initiative. stigma in mental health. Our symposium featured Similar projects are underway in the U.K., Europe presentations from leading Australian researchers and Canada. and writers, including Professors Cordelia Fine (author of Testosterone Rex and the award- Our Neuroethics Program aims to create winning Delusions of Gender) and Nicholas an interdisciplinary collaborative Australian Haslam (author of Psychology in the bathroom). Neuroethics Network that brings together leading Australian practitioners in neuroscience, law, ethics, policymaking, clinical practice, patient Public debate examines neuroscience populations, the public and other end-users to research examine the ethical and social implications of In October, we co-hosted a public debate about neuroscience research. We have undertaken a the impact of neuroscience research of addiction range of activities and initiatives during the past on society. Drugs, desire and disease: How year to achieve this. neuroscience is changing our understanding of addiction, examined the important question - is STIMULATING NEUROETHICS addiction a brain disease, and does it matter?. DISCUSSION The debate attracted over 400 registrants and was held at the National Gallery of Victoria with This year we held two symposiums to encourage co-hosts the David Winston Turner Foundation debate on the ethical, legal and social impact of Endowment and Monash Institute of Cognitive neuroscience research in Australia. and Clinical Neurosciences. The panel included: Our symposium, Electrodoping? Stimulating • Prof Dan Lubman, Director of Turning Point debate about cognitive enhancement at the Alcohol and Drug Centre Australasian Brain Stimulation Conference in Melbourne brought together leading • Prof Helen Keane, Sociologist and author of neuroscientists, ethicists and legal academics to What’s Wrong with Addiction? discuss the social and regulatory implications of the growing use of non-invasive brain stimulation • Gavin Crosisca, former addict and now devices to enhance cognition in healthy Director of Sober Living Housing individuals. Together with The Brain Dialogue, we published companion pieces in The Conversation • Prof Marc Lewis, former addict, now on the various arguments for and against neuroscientist and author of The Biology of regulating the use of brain stimulation devices to Desire: Why Addiction is not a Disease? enhance cognition and performance. The lively discussion was moderated by 3RRR In 2017, we will hold a consensus workshop with and 774 ABC Melbourne radio broadcaster and a large group of stakeholders, including policy psychiatrist, Dr Steve Ellen. The discussion also makers and professional representatives, to featured on The Conversation Hour on ABC 774 develop guidelines for the use of non-invasive with host Raf Epstein. brain stimulation devices both in and outside the clinic. The results of this workshop will be published as a background briefing for policy makers and in the mainstream media.
44 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT THE AUSTRALIAN NEUROETHICS NEUORETHICS NETWORK We have also formed the Australian Neuroethics Network (ANN). The ANN will hold workshops and public lectures with internationally renowned speakers as part of its remit.
The ANN will hold an inaugural two-day neuroethics workshop in Sydney, in June 2017. The event will feature international keynote speakers and will be jointly supported by the Centre’s Neuroethics Program, the School of Psychology, University of Sydney, and the Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics, Macquarie University. The conference will feature an internationally renowned public lecture prior to the event. Panel discussion from the public debate, ‘Drugs, desire and disease: How neuroscience is changing our understanding of addiction’. BOOSTING OUR INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION We are also forging strong links with international partners. Neuroethics Program Coordinator, Dr Adrian Carter, was the Australian Ambassador at the International Neuroethics Society (INS) meeting, which was a satellite meeting of the 2016 Society for Neuroscience conference, held in San Diego, November. The INS president, Prof Judy Illes (University of British Columbia) has also invited Dr Carter to join the INS Response Action Task Force to provide guidance and recommendations on important and timely issues raised by neuroscience research. Prof Illes, along with Centre Director, Prof Gary Egan and Dr Carter also submitted a symposium proposal on the neuroethics of brain mapping for inclusion at the Organization of Human Brain Mapping 2018 conference. These activities will increase our international profile and position the Centre as a world-wide leader in neuroethics.
Brain Function CoE Advisory Board Chair Lyn Beazley alongside Neuroethics Coordinator Adrian Carter
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 45 Sponsorships
STUDENTS OF BRAIN RESEARCH (SOBR) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DINNER
On Wednesday 25 May, 2016 SOBR hosted its Victorian Government Innovation Expert Panel; annual Professional Development Dinner at the and Adam Ferrier, a prominent consumer State Library of Victoria. It was SOBR’s largest psychologist and regular panellist on the ABC’s ever event with 180 local brain research Gruen Series. Science communicator and 3RRR students, distinguished scientists, industry broadcaster, Dr Andi Horvath, was invited to representatives, and science communicators once again host the evening. from 14 local universities and research institutes. The theme of the night was ‘Beyond Through the Professional Development Dinner, the Lab: Rebranding Your Science’ and focussed SOBR continues to provide brain research on how to pitch yourself and your science to the students opportunities to network and engage public, governments, and industry. within the scientific community.
SOBR is a not-for-profit, independent organisation that is run by students. Founded in 2011, SOBR aims to connect brain research students from across Victoria. Without its sponsors, including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, SOBR would not be able to hold events to provide opportunities for students to network.
Keynote speakers were experts in interfacing Attendees at the Students of Brain Research (SOBR) Professional with industry and government; Leonie Walsh, Development dinner at the State Library of Victoria. then Victorian Lead Scientist and chair of the Credit: Vickie Zhang
NEUROENG 2016 & AUSTRALIAN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE SOCIETY CONFERENCE
The NeuroEng 2016 conference was held neurobiology of aging, e.g. the brain systems and in Brisbane, Australia in November, 2016. neural circuits are involved in how we navigate the NeuroEng 2016 brought together researchers world via predictive models of our environment. at the interfaces between neuroscience, Rosalyn is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematical engineering, physics and psychiatry. The topics Neuroscience at the Department of Engineering covered included theoretical, mathematical and Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK. computational neuroscience, computational psychiatry, neuroimaging, connectomics and networks, Magnetoencephalography/ EEG and electrophysiology, neural modeling and engineering, neuromorphic engineering, neuroprosthetics and brain machine interfaces, neural Information processing, neuroinformatics, cognitive and systems neuroscience and neurostimulation. Speakers and attendees at NeuroEng 2016. The Centre provided funding for the key-note speaker, Rosalyn Moran who presented ‘Aging
under the Free Energy Principle’, which outlined Hannah Keage, Muireann Irish, Donna Rose Addis, Anina Rich, Rosalyn work from sensory learning, memory and decision Moran (Keynote speaker) and Marta Garrido at the Australian Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference. making paradigms that demonstrated how the Credit: Anina Rich
46 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Additional Funding
ARC FUNDING ADDITIONAL FUNDING ARC DISCOVERY PROJECTS Project Title: Models of structure vision LP140100763 Project Title: Seeing is Believing:Nanophotonic $389,000 (2014-2017) Pixels for Subwavelength Imaging On a Chip Centre Chief Investigators: Greg Stuart and DP170100363 Ted Maddess $452,000 (2017-2021) Centre Chief Investigator: Stan Skafidas ARC FUTURE FELLOWSHIP
Project Title: Neuronal activity underlying Project Title: Neuronal and behavioural efficient sensory processing correlates of sensory adaptation DP170100908 FT120100357 $387,500 (2017-2019) $692,788 (2012-2016) Centre Chief Investigator: Ehsan Arabzadeh Centre Chief Investigator: Ehsan Arabzadeh ARC LIEF GRANT Project Title: Functional magnetic resonance imaging: Decoding the palimpsest. Project Title: Distributed ultrafast optical clocks DP170101778 for terabit/s communications $370,500 (2017-2019) LE170100160 Centre Chief Investigators Peter Robinson, Mark $250,000 (2017) Schira, Michael Breakspear Centre Chief Investigator: Arthur Lowery
Project Title: Hierarchical information processing Project Title: Ultrafast optoelectronic in the primate visual cortex characterisation for optical and wireless systems DP170104600 LE160100203 $392,000 (2017-2019) $420,000 (2016-2017) Centre Chief Investigators: Marcello Rosa, Adam Centre Chief Investigator: Stan Skafidas Morris, Hsin-Hao Yu Project Title: Rapid prototyping 3D nano-pattern Project Title: Propagating Neural Waves: large area writer systems Combined Experimental and Modelling Study LE160100124 DP160104316 $300,000 (2016-2017) $366,939 (2016-2018) Centre Chief Investigator: Stan Skafidas Centre Chief Investigators: Pulin Gong and OTHER FUNDING BODIES Paul Martin NHMRC PROGRAM GRANT Project Title: Neural spike variability: Unifying conflicting views of neural dynamics Project Title: Precision Medicine in DP160104368 Genetic Epilepsy $240,000 (2016-2018) APP1091593 Centre Chief Investigator: Pulin Gong $15,000,000 (2016-2021) Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Project Title: Quantification of whole brain structural connectivity and fibre densities NHMRC PROJECT GRANTS DP160104193 $345,000 (2016-2018) Project Title: Understanding cortical circuitry Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou underlying sensory integration and the consequence of its developmental disruption ARC LINKAGE PROJECT APP1124411 $527,395 (2017-2020) Project Title: Development of far infrared Centre Chief Investigator: Ehsan Arabzadeh multispectral thermal image sensors LP160101475 $330,000 (2017-2020) Centre Chief Investigator: Stan Skafidas
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 47 Project Title: Do ongoing cognitive demands Project Title: Voltage gated calcium channels affect the efficacy of transcranial electrical brain and vitamin D: exploring the convergent links stimulation in young and older healthy adults? between risk factors for schizophrenia APP1129715 APP1099709 $627,857 (2017-2020) $754,288 (2016-2019) Centre Chief Investigators: Jason Mattingley and Centre Chief Investigator: Pankaj Sah Paul Dux Project Title: Auditory processing in the amygdala Project Title: Rapid plasticity in sensory systems - APP1103891 linking neuronal adaptation and perception $1,009,956 (2016-2019) APP1120667 Centre Chief Investigator: Pankaj Sah $650,809 (2017-2020) Centre Chief Investigators: Nick Price, Adam Project Title: Selective modulation of neural Morris and Hsin-Hao Yu network activity using focal brain stimulation APP1099082 Project Title: Neural circuits that mediate $531,495 (2016-2019) fear extinction Centre Chief Investigators: Marcello Rosa, Adam APP1128427 Morris and Hsin-Hao Yu ADDITIONAL FUNDING $941,656 (2017-2020) Centre Chief Investigator: Pankaj Sah Project Title: Modelling epileptic encephalopathies using induced stem cells Project Title: Role of calcium-activated potassium APP1106027 channels in neuronal excitability, synaptic $506,489 (2016-2018) plasticity and sensory processing Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou APP1125915 Project Title: ASPREE NEURO Study: Cerebral $612,272 (2017-2020) micro-haemorrhages and aspirin in the Centre Chief Investigator: Greg Stuart elderly: cognitive and clinical consequences. A Project Title: Learning and network plasticity in a prospective randomised controlled trial APP1086188 primitive sensory cortex APP1128320 $956,186 (2015-2018) $461,557 (2017-2019) Centre Chief Investigator: Gary Egan Centre Chief Investigators: Ehsan Arabzadeh and Project Title: Context is everything? John Bekkers Understanding how spatial, temporal and behavioural context affect sensory processing Project Title: Mapping the human retina: A APP1066588 foundation study $495,674 (2014-2016) APP1123418 Centre Chief Investigators: Nick Price and Ehsan $411,555 (2017-2019) Arabzadeh Centre Chief Investigators: Ulrike Grünert and Paul Martin Project Title: Development of folding in the fetal cerebral cortex Project Title: Neural circuits for residual vision APP1061291 after damage to striate cortex $588,568 (2014-2016) APP1122220 Centre Chief Investigator: Gary Egan $662,220 (2017-2019) Centre Chief Investigators: Marcello Rosa, Partha Project Title: A longitudinal neuroimaging Mitra and Hsin-Hao Yu study investigating reorganisation of cerebellar- cerebral networks in Friedreich ataxia Project Title: Neural computations for predictive APP1046037 coding in visual cortex $782,162 (2013-2016) APP1128755 Centre Chief Investigator: Gary Egan $479,832 (2017-2019) Centre Chief Investigators: Marcello Rosa, Adam NHMRC DEVELOPMENT GRANTS Morris and Hsin-Hao Yu Project Title: Development of a high acuity, Project Title: Next generation cybernetics: Long diamond retinal prosthesis term carbon fibre dual stimulation/recording APP1118223 electrode arrays for closed loop neural implants $1,010,214 (2017-2019) APP1101717 Centre Chief Investigators: Michael Ibbotson and $680,000 (2016-2019) Hamish Meffin Centre Chief Investigators: Michael Ibbotson and NHMRC PRINCIPAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS Hamish Meffin Project Title: Targeted Therapy in genetic Project Title: Neuro-feedback for improved epilepsy efficacy of retinal prosthesis APP1106035 APP1106390 $753,300 (2016-2020) $653,655 (2016-2019) Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Centre Chief Investigators: Michael Ibbotson, Shaun Cloherty, Anthony Burkitt and Hamish Meffin
48 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Project Title: Simultaneous MR-PET metabolic Project Title: Brain control over the spinal cord and functional Imaging for neuroscience and during voluntary movement: a study using dementia research CLARITY/CUBIC technique APP1102725 Rebecca Copper Foundation Medical Research $150,660 (2016) Grant Centre Chief Investigator: Gary Egan $25,000 (2016) Centre Chief Investigator: Andy Liang NHMRC EQUIPMENT GRANT Project Title: Peptide therapeutic for Dravet Equipment type: Portable Neurophysiological Syndrome Assessment Suite Epilepsy CURE (USA) NHMRC APP9000389 USD$250,000 (2015-2017) $130,000 (2017) Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Centre Chief Investigators: Gary Egan, Marcello Rosa, Alex Fornito and Adam Morris INSTITUTIONAL PROJECT GRANTS INDUSTRY/ PHILANTHROPIC GRANTS Project Title: Revealing the neural basis of visual motion perception through multi-scale brain Project Title: Precision medicine in epilepsy: imaging therapeutic assessment using patients derived ADDITIONAL FUNDING Monash University Strategic Grants Scheme stem cell neurons $45,000 (2017) CSN2A Research Foundation Centre Chief Investigators: Marcello Rosa, Shaun USD$2,500,000 (2016-2020) Cloherty, Adam Morris and Nick Price Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Project Title: Brain pathways of salient Project Title: Funding for 3 year Research information processing Fellow appointment University of Queensland Fellowship Lions Victoria and LEW Carty Foundation $251,540 (2016-2019) $360,000 (2016-2018) Centre Chief Investigator: Marta Garrido Centre Chief Investigators: Michael Ibbotson and Hamish Meffin Project Title: Selective modulation of neural network activity using focal brain stimulation Project Title: Building a roadmap for the Brain Queensland Institute of Medical Research DHB Foundation $22,000 (2016-2017) $300,000 (2016-2017) Centre Chief Investigators: Jason Mattingley, Luca Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Cocchi and Olaf Sporns Project Title: Development of a Non-Invasive Project Title: Modelling a continuum of psychosis and Automated Point-of-Care Immunosensor for with brain imaging Malaria Elimination in the Asia Pacific University of Queensland Foundation Research Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Excellence Award USD$100,000 (2016-2017) $95,272 (2016) Centre Chief Investigator: Stan Skafidas Centre Chief Investigator: Marta Garrido Project Title: Computational drug repurposing INSTITUTIONAL EQUIPMENT GRANTS for CDKL5 using target-disease interaction networks Equipment type: A brain physiology laboratory Lulu Foundation, USA for neuropsychological research in the new USD$150,000 (2016) Queensland neuropsychology Research Centre Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou UQ Major Equipment and Infrastructure $109,606 (2016) Project Title: In vivo assessment of a Dravet Centre Chief Investigators: Jason Mattingley and syndrome peptide therapeutic Paul Dux Clarus Ventures USD$110,000 (2016) Equipment type: Confocal laser scanning Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou microscope UNSW MREII, Equipment Grant Project Title: MCT Nuetraceutical therapy in $152,872 (2016) Dravet syndrome Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Vitaflo/Nestle $70,000 (2016) Equipment type: High Speed Imaging of Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Neuronal Activity ANU Major Equipment Grant Project Title: Ion Channel Drug Screening $85,000 (2016) Therapeutic Innovation Australia, National Centre Chief Investigators: Greg Stuart, Ehsan Research Infrastructure for Australia Arabzadeh and Vincent Daria $39,000 (2016) Centre Chief Investigator: Steve Petrou Equipment type: Tissue Slicer ANU Small Equipment Grant $13,000 (2016) Centre Chief Investigator: Greg Stuart
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 49 Plans for 2017
FOCUS AREA PLANS FOR 2017 PLANS FOR 2017 FOR PLANS Research program During 2017 the Centre’s research plan will increasingly emphasise studies involving multiscale integrative approaches in human and animal model experiments. Using advanced imaging and computational neuroscience approaches, attentional studies will be undertaken in human studies to identify the neural mechanisms involved in combined attentional and predictive coding processes for visual stimuli. Predictive coding experiments utilising multiple multi-electrode array recordings will be undertaken in rodent models to identify feedback neural mechanisms implicated in reconciling unexpected visual stimuli with predicted stimuli. Established models of rodent sensory decision making will be refined to examine attentional and predictive coding processes associated with the sensory stimuli. And finally, studies in non-human primate models of visual attention using combined behavioural, imaging and electrophysiological recordings in non-human primate models will be commenced.
Industry Industry engagement activities will include visits to Israel to establish a co- engagement operation with the Israel Brain Technology organisation IBT, and to develop links with the Israel brain tech startup community. The Israel co-operation will also involve engagement with the Australian Federal Government Landing Pad that has been established in Tel Aviv, and a delegation from the Centre’s researchers involved in the development of new technologies for research and other potential applications.
Primary school After such as successful event in 2016, the Primary school art competition will again run in 2017 in conjunction with Brain Awareness Week.
Secondary school In 2017, The Brain Function CoE will be the official hosts of the Australian Brain Bee Competition (ABBC), continuing through to 2020. The ABBC is an annual neuroscience competition for students in year 10 in Australia, and in year 11 in New Zealand, that encourages students to learn about the brain and how it works, aiming to dispel myths about brain disorders, and inspiring students to pursue brain-related careers in medicine and research.
Early career The primary goal of the ECR committee in 2017 is to organise a 4 day retreat, researchers consisting of workshops on media engagement, and careers both outside and within academia, as well as provide lectures on.
The Brain A Public forum series ‘Machines that Read your Mind’, will be rolled out Dialogue across the country, exploring the impact of our improved understanding of how the brain encodes information.
50 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT PLANS FOR 2017 FOR PLANS Neuroinformatics Data from an additional 1,200 subjects on the MASSIVE-CIBF mirror of the Human Connectome Project will be released for use by Brain Function CoE researchers. In addition, a model and data sharing capability between Brain Function CoE and HBP will be established.
International The international collaboration plan will include hosted visits from the leaders collaborations of the European Human Brain Project and the US Brain Initiative. The visit programs will include focused research workshops with Centre researchers, a national symposium to discuss the large scale neuroscience initiatives and the opportunity to build an Australian Brain Initiative, as well as scientific seminars and a major public lecture. A scientific collaboration meeting with partner scientists from Europe and Israel will follow up the initial meeting in 2015 held in Prato, Italy and is currently being planned for the latter part of 2017.
Public lectures A free Public Lecture ‘Brains and Computers’ featuring world renowned neuroscientists Christof Koch and Karlheinz Meier will be held at the Melbourne Convention and exhibition Centre, catering to over 500 researchers, scientists, industry representatives, students and the general public.
Strategic and Developments in the Centre’s communication strategy will see the communications establishment of a Centre intranet, to ensure real time exchange of key data planning and information, allowing greater integration and collaboration between nodes. External communication will be enhanced by the release of an external newsletter to facilitate communication with key stakeholders.
Neuroethics A consensus workshop will be held in 2017 with a large group of stakeholders, including policy makers and professional representatives, to develop guidelines for the use of non-invasive brain stimulation devices both in and outside the clinic. The results of this workshop will be published as a background briefing for policy makers and in the mainstream media.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 51 Publications
BOOKS 10. Aberyrathne, C.D., Huynh, D.H., Lee, T.T., Nguyen, T.C., Nasr, B., Chana, G., Skafidis, E. 1. Mai, J.K., Majtanic, M., Paxinos, G. Atlas
PUBLICATIONS GFAP antibody detection using interdigital of the Human Brain, 4th ed. San Diego: Academic Press; 2016. coplanar waveguide immunosensor. IEEE Sens J. 2016; 16(9): 2898-2905. 2. Stuart, G.J., Spruston, N., Hausser, M. 11. Amlien, I.K., Fjell, A.M., Tamnes, C.K., Dendrites, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2016. Grydeland, H., Krogsrud, S.K., Chaplin, T.A., Rosa, M.G.P., Walhovd, K.B. BOOK CHAPTERS Organizing principles of human cortical 3. Arabzadeh, E., von Heimendahl, M., development - thickness and area from 4 to Diamond, M.E. Vibrissal Texture Coding, in 30 years: Insights from comparative primate Scholarpedia of Touch, T.J. Prescott, et al., neuroanatomy Cereb Cortex. 2016; 26(1): Eds. Paris: Atlantis Press; 2016. p. 737-749. 257-267. 4. Hausser, M., Spruston, N., Stuart, G.J. The 12. Baumann, O., Mattingley, J.B. Functional future of dendritic research, in Dendrites, organization of the parahippocampal cortex: G.J. Stuart, et al., Eds. Oxford: Oxford Dissociable roles for context representations University Press; 2016. p. 703-707. and the perception of visual scenes. J 2016; 36(8): 2536-2542. 5. Lowery, A.J., Rosenfeld, J.V., Rosa, M.G.P., Neurosci. Brunton, E., Rajan, R., Mann, C., Armstrong, 13. Bock, H.T., Stuart, G.J. Impact of BK channels M., Mohan, A., Josh, H., Kleeman, L., Li, W.H., on cellular excitability depends on their Pritchard, J. Monash Vision Group’s Gennaris subcellular location. Front. Cell. Neurosci. Cortical Implant for Vision Restoration, in 2016; 10: Art. 206. Artifcial Vision, V.P. Gabel, Ed. Switzerland: 14. Bock, T., Stuart, G.J. Impact of calcium- Springer International Publishing; 2016. p. activated potassium channels on NMDA 215-225. spikes in cortical layer 5 pyramidal neurons. J 6. Spruston, N., Stuart, G.J., Hausser, M. Neurophysiol. 2016; 115(3): 1740-1748. Principles of dendritic intgration, in 15. Boonstra, T.W., Farmer, S.F., Breakspear, M. Dendrites, G.J. Stuart, et al., Eds. Oxford: Using computational neuroscience to define Oxford University Press; 2016. p. 351-398. common input to spinal motor neurons. Front CONFERENCE PAPERS Hum Neurosci. 2016; 10: Art. 313. 7. Saker, P., Farrell, M.J., Egan, G.F., McKinley, 16. Cloherty, S.L., Hughes, N.J., Hietenan, M.A., M.J., Denton, D.A. Overdrinking, swallowing Bhagavatula, P., Goodhill, G.J., Ibbotson, inhibition, and regional brain responses prior M.R. Sensory experience modifies feature to swallowing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016; map relationships in visual cortex. eLife. 2016; 113(43): 12274-12279. 5: e13911. 8. Mendis, G.D., Morrisroe, E., Reid, C.A., 17. Cocchi, L., Sale, M.V., Gollo, L.L., Bell, P.T., Halgamuge, S., Petrou, S. Use of local field Nguyen, V.T., Zalesky, A., Breakspear, M., potentials of dissociated cultures grown on Mattingley, J.B. A hierarchy of timescales multi-electrode arrays for pharmacological explains distinct effects of local inhibition of assays. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. primary visual cortex and frontal eye fields. 2016; 2016-October: Art. 7590859. eLife. 2016; 5(Se): e15252. JOURNAL ARTICLES 18. Cooray, G.K., Garrido, M.I., Brismar, T., Hyllienmark, L. The maturation of mismatch 9. Aberyrathne, C.D., Huynh, D.H., Lee, T.T., negativity networks in normal adolescence. Mcintire, T.W., Nguyen, T.C., Nasr, B., 2016; 127(1): 520-529. Zantomio, D., Chana, G., Abbot, I., Choong, Clin Neurophysiol. P., Catton, M., Skafidis, E. Lab on a chip 19. Davies, A.J., Chaplin, T.A., Rosa, M.G.P., Yu, sensor for rapid detection and antibiotic H.-H. Natural motion trajectory enhances resistance determination of staphylococcus the coding of speed in primate extrastriate aureua. Analyst. 2016; 141(6): 1922-1929. cortex. Sci Rep. 2016; 6: Art. 19739.
52 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 20. Dürschmid, S., Zaehle, T., Hinrichs, H., 32. Kameneva, T., Maturana, M.I., Hadjinicolaou, Heinze, H.-J., Voges, J., Garrido, M.I., Dolan, A.E., Cloherty, S.L., Ibbotson, M.R., Grayden, R., Knight, R. Sensory deviancy detection D.B., Burkitt, A.N., Meffin, H. Retinal ganglion measured directly within the human nucleus cells: mechanisms underlying depolarization accumbens. Cereb Cortex. 2016; 26(3): 1168- block and differential responses to high 1175. frequency electrical stimulation of ON and 21. Fam, J., Westbrook, R.F., Arabzadeh, E. OFF cells. J Neural Eng. 2016; 13(1): Art. Temporal dynamics of choice behavior in 016017. rats and humans: An examination of pre- and 33. Kamke, M.R., Nydam, A.S., Sale, M.V., post-choice latencies. Sci Rep. 2016; 6: Art. Mattingley, J.B. Associative plasticity in 20583. the human motor cortex is enhanced by 22. Fazlali, Z., Ranjbar-Slamloo, Y., Adibi, concurrently targetingseparate muscle M., Arabzadeh, E. Correlation between representations with excitatory and inhibitory cortical state and locus coeruleus activity: protocols. J Neurophysiol. 2016; 115(4): 2191- Implications for sensory coding in rat barrel 2198. cortex. Front Neural Circuit. 2016; 10: Art. 14. 34. Lee, C., Diamond, M.E., Arabzadeh, E.
23. Fu, Y., Hsiao, J.H., Paxinos, G., Halliday, Sensory prioritization in rats: behavioural PUBLICATIONS G.M., Kim, W.S. ABCA7 mediates phagocytic performance and neuronal correlates. J 2016; 36(11): 3243-3253. clearance of Amyloid-ß in the brain. J Neurosci. Alzheimers Dis. 2016; 54(2): 569-584. 35. Lee, S.C., Weltzien, F., Madigan, M., Martin, 24. Fu, Y., Paxinos, G., Watson, C., Halliday, G.M. P.R., Grünert, U. Identification of aII amacrine, The substantia nigra and ventral tegmental displaced amacrine and bistratified ganglion dopaminergic neurons from development cell types in human retina with antibodies against calretinin. . 2016; to degeneration. J Chem Neuroanat. 2016; J Comp Neurol 76(Pt B): 98-107. 524(1): 39-53. 25. Gamberini, M., Bakola, S., Passarelli, L., 36. Liang, H., Schofield, E., Paxinos, G. Imaging Burman, K., Rosa, M.G.P., Fattori, P., Galletti, serotonergic fibers in the mouse spinal cord C. Thalamic projections to visual and using the CLARITY/CUBIC technique. J Vis visuomotor areas (V6 and V6A) in the Rostral Exp. 2016; 108: Art. 53673. Bank of the parieto-occipital sulcus of the 37. Liang, H., Watson, C., Paxinos, G. Macaque. Brain Struct Funct. 2016; 221(3): Terminations of reticulospinal fibers 1573-1589. originating from the gigantocellular reticular 26. Garrido, M.I., Teng, C.L.J., Taylor, J.A., Rowe, formation in the mouse spinal cord. Brain E.G., Mattingley, J.B. Surprise responses Struct Funct. 2016; 221(3): 1623-1633. in the human brain demonstrate statistical 38. Liu, X., Xie, B., Qi, Y., Du, X., Wang, S., learning under high concurrent cognitive Zhang, Y., Paxinos, G., Yang, H., Liang, H. The demand. npj Sci Learn. 2016; 1: Art 16006. expression of SEIPIN in the mouse central 27. Ghodrati, M., Alwis, D.S., Price, N.S.C., Foxe, nervous system. Brain Struct Funct. 2016; J. Orientation selectivity in rat primary visual 221(8): 4111-4127. cortex emerges earlier with low-contrast and 39. Majka, P., Chaplin, T.A., Yu, H.-H., Tolpygo, A., high-luminance stimuli. Eur J Neurosci. 2016; Mitra, P.P., Wójcik, D.K., Rosa, M.G.P. Towards 44(10): 2759-2773. a comprehensive atlas of cortical connections 28. Gu, Y., Gong, P. The dynamics of memory in a primate brain: Mapping tracer injection studies of the common marmoset into a retrieval in hierarchical networks. J Comput reference digital template. Neurosci. 2016; 40(3): 247-268. J Comp Neurol. 2016; 524(11): 2161-2181. 29. Hearne, L., Mattingley, J.B., Cocchi, L. Functional brain networks related to 40. Mansouri, F.A., Fehring, D.J., Feizpour, individual differences in human intelligence A., Gaillard, A., Rosa, M.G.P., Rajan, R., Jaberzadeh, S., Thut, G. Direct current at rest. Sci Rep. 2016; 6: Art. 32328. stimulation of prefrontal cortex modulates 30. Hohwy, J., Paton, B., Palmer, C. Distrusting error-induced behavioral adjustments. Eur J the present. Phenomenol Cogn Sci. 2016; Neurosci. 2016; 44(2): 1856-1869. 15(3): 315-335. 41. Mansouri, F.A., Fehring, D.J., Gaillard, 31. Jamadar, S.D., Egan, G.F., Calhoun, A., Jaberzadeh, S., Parkington, H. Sex V.D., Johnson, B., Fielding, J. Intrinsic dependency of inhibitory control functions. connectivity provides the baseline framework Biol Sex Differ. 2016; 7(11): 1-13. for variability in motor performance: A multivariate fusion analysis of low-and 42. Masri, R.A., Percival, K.A., Koizumi, A., Martin, high-frequency resting-state oscillations and P.R., Grünert, U. Connectivity between the OFF bipolar type DB3a and six types of antisaccade performance. Brain Connect. 2016; 6(6): 505-517. ganglion cell in the marmoset retina. J Comp Neurol. 2016; 524(9): 1839-1858.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 53 43. Maturana, M.I., Apollo, N.V., Hadjinicoloaou, 54. Sabri, M., Adibi, M., Arabzadeh, E. Dynamics A.E., Garrett, D.J., Cloherty, S.L., Kameneva, of population activity in rat sensory cortex: T., Grayden, D.B., Ibbotson, M.R., Meffin, Network correlations predict anatomical H. A simple and accurate model to predict arrangement and information content. Front responses to multi-electrode stimulation in Neural Circuit. 2016; 10: Art. 49. the retina. PLoS Comput Biol. 2016; 12(4): 55. Sarkar, S., Chawla, S., Robinson, P.A., e1004849. Fortunato, S. Eigenvector dynamics under 44. Naughtin, C., Mattingley, J.B., Dux, P. Early perturbation of modular networks. Phys Rev information processing contributions to E. 2016; 93(6): Art. 062312. object individuation revealed by perception 56. Spampanato, J., Sullivan, R.K.P., Perumal, of illusory figures. J Neurophysiol. 2016; M.B., Sah, P. Development and physiology 116(6): 2513-2522. of GABAergic feedback excitation in 45. Naughtin, C.K., Mattingley, J.B., Dux, parvalbumin expressing interneurons of the P.E. Distributed and overlapping neural mouse basolateral amygdala. Physiol Rep. substrates for object individuation and 2016; 4: e12664. identification in visual short-term memory. 57. Verghese, A., Garner , K.G., Mattingley, PUBLICATIONS Cereb Cortex. 2016; 26(2): 566-275. J.B., Dux, P. Prefrontal cortex structure 46. Pang, J.C., Robinson, P.A., Aquino, K.M. predicts training - induced improvements in Response-mode decomposition of spatio- multitasking performance. J Neurosci. 2016; temporal haemodynamics. J R Soc Interface. 36(9): 2638-2645. 2016; 13(118): pii: 20160253. 58. Wilson, M.T., Fung, P.K., Robinson, P.A., 47. Puckett, A.M., Aquino, K.M., Robinson, Shemmell, J., Reynolds, J.N. Calcium P.A., Breakspear, M., Schira, M.M. The dependent plasticity applied to repetitive spatiotemporal hemodynamic response transcranial magnetic stimulation with a function for depth-dependent functional neural field model. J Comput Neurosci. 2016; imaging of human cortex. NeuroImage. 2016; 41(1): 107-125. 139: 240-248. 59. Windels, F., Yan, S., Stratton, P.G., Sullivan, 48. Richards, L.R., Michie, P.T., Badcock, D.R., R., Crane, J.W., Sah, P. Auditory tones and Bartlett, P.F., Bekkers, J.M., Bourne, J.A., foot-shock recapitulate spontaneous sub- Castles, A., Egan, G.F., Fornito, A., Hannan, threshold activity in basolateral amygdala A.J., Hickie, I.B., Mattingley, J.B., Schofield, principal neurons and interneurons. PLoS P.R., Shum, D.H.K., Stuart, G.J., Vickers, J.C., One. 2016; 11(5): e0155192. Vissel, B. Australian Brain Alliance. Neuron. 60. Yang, D.P., McKenzie-Sell, L., Karanjai, A., 2016; 92(3): 597-600. Robinson, P.A. Wake-sleep transition as a 49. Roberts, J.A., Perry, A., Lord, A.R., Roberts, noisy bifurcation. Phys Rev E. 2016; 94(2): Art. G., Mitchell, P.B., Smith, R.E., Calamante, F., 022412. Breakspear, M. The contribution of geometry 61. Zalesky, A., Fornito, A., Cocchi, L., Gollo, to the human connectome. NeuroImage. L.L., van den Heuvel, M.P., Breakspear, M. 2016; 124: 379-393. Connectome sensitivity or specificity: which 50. Robinson, A.K., Laning, J., Reinhard, is more important? NeuroImage. 2016; 142: J., Mattingley, J.B. Odours reduce the 407-420. magnitude of object substitution masking 62. Zarei, P., Kameneva, T., Ibbotson, M.R., for matching visual targets in females. Atten Grayden, D.L. A possible role for end- Percept Psycho. 2016; 78(6): 1702-1711. stopped V1 neurons in the perception of 51. Robinson, P.A., Zhao, X., Aquino, K.M., motion: a computational model. PLoS One. Griffiths, J.D., Sarkar, S., Mehta-Pandejee, 2016; 11(10): e0164813. G. Eigenmodes of brain activity: Neural field 63. Zavitz, E., Yu, H.-H., Rowe, E.G., Rosa, M.G.P., theory predictions and comparison with Price, N.S.C. Rapid adaptation induces experiment. NeuroImage. 2016; 142: 79-98. persistent biases in population codes for 52. Rusznák, Z., Henskens, W., Schofield, E., visual motion. J Neurosci. 2016; 36(16): 4579- Kim, W.S., Fu, Y. Adult neurogenesis and 4590. gliogenesis: Possible mechanisms for REVIEW ARTICLES neurorestoration. Exp Neurobiol. 2016; 25(3): 103-112. 64. Lewis, P.M., Ayton, L.N., Guymer, R.H., Lowery, A.J., Blamey, P.J., Allen, P.J., Luu, 53. Rusznák, Z., Kim, W.S., Hsiao, J.H., Halliday, C.D., Rosenfeld, J.V. Advances in implantable G.M., Paxinos, G., Fu, Y. Early in vivo effects bionic devices for blindness: a review. ANZ J of the human mutant Amyloid-ß protein Surg. 2016; 86(9): 654-659. precursor (hAßPPSwInd) on the mouse olfactory bulb. J Alzheimers Dis. 2016; 49(2): 65. Molenberghs, P., Johnson, H., Henry , J., 443-457. Mattingley, J.B. Understanding the minds of others: A neuroimaging meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016; 65: 276-291.
54 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Presentations PRESENTATIONS INTERNATIONAL PRESENTATIONS 11. Breakspear, M. From simplicity to complexity: 1. Arabzadeh, E. A rat model of sensory Complex systems across science. World decision-making. Australasian Neuroscience Science Festival. 9-13 March 2016; Brisbane, Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 Australia. December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 12. Egan, G. Meet the editors roundtable. 22nd 2. Atapour, N., Rosa, M.G.P. Structural plasticity Annual Meeting of the Organization for of the axon initial segment in marmoset Human Brain Mapping. 26-30 June 2016; prefrontal cortex. 39th Annual Meeting of the Geneva, Switzerland. Japan Neuroscience Society. 20-22 July 2016; 13. Egan, G. Big data neuroimaging applications Yokohama, Japan. at the Australian Research Council Centre 3. Breakspear, M. Brain waves and chimera of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. states: Mechanisms of cortical metastability. 18th IOP World Congress. 31 August - 4 Yale Workshop on Brain Connectivity. 6-9 September 2016; Habana, Cuba. March 2016; Whistler, Canada. 14. Garrido, M. Predictive and efficient coding 4. Breakspear, M. A Fokker Planck for the brain. in sensory learning. Université Grenoble- Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2016 Annual Alpes, Laboratoire de Psychologie et Meeting. 2-5 April 2016; New York, USA. NeuroCognition - CNRS. 1 July 2016; Grenoble, France. 5. Breakspear, M. Dysconnectivity of affective disorders. The Royal Society Theo Murphy 15. Garrido, M. Predictive and efficient International Scientific Meeting. 6-7 April coding in sensory learning. CCU Lisbon, 2016; London, UK. Champalimaud Neuroscience. 16 June 2016; Lisbon, Portugal. 6. Breakspear, M. Interoception and affective disorders. Wellcome Trust Centre for 16. Garrido, M. Electroencephalographic Neuroimaging Brain Meeting. 8 April 2016; biomarkers of schizophrenia. Max Planck UCL London, UK. Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research. 24 June 2016; London, UK. 7. Breakspear, M. Brain waves. Brain Connectivity Workshop. 22-24 June 2016; 17. Garrido, M. Detecting unseen change. Marseille, France. 6th Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. 26 November 2016; Newcastle, 8. Breakspear, M. Structural, functional and Australia. effective connectivity in affective disorders. Brain & Mind Symposium. 15-16 September 18. Grünert, U., Masri, R.A., Percival, K.A., 2016; Helsinki, Finland. Koizumi, A., Martin, P.R. Morphological diversity of ganglion cells in marmoset 9. Breakspear, M. Nonlinear models of large- retina. Annual Meeting of the Association scale brain activity. 6th Australasian Cognitive for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Neuroscience Conference. 24-27 November (ARVO). 1-5 May 2016; Seattle, USA. 2016; Newcastle, Australia. 19. Hadjidimitrakis, K., Morris, A.P., Breveglieri, 10. Breakspear, M. Sa2a Geometric constraints R., Galletti, C., Fattori, P., Rosa, M.G.P. and dynamic consequences of the human Encoding and decoding of 3D reaches connectome. 9th Dynamic Days Asia-Pacific. from neural populations in the posterior 14-17 December 2016; Hong Kong, China. parietal cortex of macaques. Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 55 20. Hagan, M.A., Chaplin, T.A., Huxlin, K.R., 30. Mattingley, J. Keynote - Humphreys Lecture: Rosa, M.G.P., Lui, L.L. Neurons in MT are Mechanisms of selective attention in health less likely to be direction selective after and disease. SummerFest 2016: Impact, chronic V1 lesions. Australasian Neuroscience Innovation and Integrity. 22 July 2016; Hong Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 Kong, China. December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 31. Maturana, M.I., Grayden, D.B., Cloherty, 21. Lee, C., Arabzadeh, E. Neuronal correlates S.L., Kameneva, T., Ibbotson, M.R., Meffin, of sensory prioritization in rats. 29th Annual H. A simple model of retinal response to PRESENTATIONS Barrels Conference. 11 November 2016; Los multi-electrode stimulation. 25th Annual Angeles, USA. Computational Neuroscience Meeting. 2-7 July 2016; Je Ju Island, South Korea. 22. Lee, S.C., Aghajani, R.J., Martin, P.R., Grünert, U. Quantification of the neurons in the 32. Meffin, H., Ibbotson, M.R., Almasi, A., Wong, rod pathway of the human retina. Annual Y., Cloherty, S. Predictive coding in receptive Meeting of the Association for Research in field formation in visual cortex. Australasian Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). 1-5 May Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific 2016; Seattle, USA. Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 23. Liang, A. Supraspinal projections to the mouse spinal cord: origin and termination. 33. Morris, A.P., Krekelberg, B. Primary visual 14th Meeting of the Asian-Pacific Society for cortex is home to an intrinsic neural Neurochemistry. 27-30 August 2016; Kuala eye tracker. Australasian Neuroscience Lumpur, Malaysia. Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 24. Lowery, A. Engineering development of the Monash Vision Group BIONIC EYE. 4th 34. Paxinos, G. The brains of humans and International Conference on Medical Bionics. experimental animals. SPIE BioPhotonics 20-23 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia. conference. 16-19 October 2016; Adelaide, Australia. 25. Mansouri, F. The role of frontal pole cortex in primate cognition. 39th Annual Meeting of 35. Paxinos, G. Histological and MRI atlases the Japan Neuroscience Society. 20-22 July of the brain of humans and experimental 2016; Yokohama, Japan. animals. The 2nd International Workshop on Human Brain Banking. May 2016; China. 26. Marek, R. Attentional modulation of prefrontal circuits that mediate fear 36. Paxinos, G. Brain, behaviour and evolution. extinction. Australasian Neuroscience World Congress on Genetics, Geriatrics and Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 Neurodegenerative Disease Research. 20-23 December 2016; Hobart, Australia. October 2016; Sparta, Greece.
27. Martin, P.R. Color and the koniocellular 37. Rosa, M.G. Organisation and connections of pathways. Lifetime of Vision: Symposium frontal pole areas in different primates. 39th for Vivien Casagrande. 18 November 2016; Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Nashville, USA. Society. 20-22 July 2016; Yokohama, Japan.
28. Martin, P.R., Buzas, P., Blessing, E., Pietersen, 38. Rosa, M.G., Majka, P., Chan, J.M., Bai, S., A.N.J., Cheong, S.K., Zeater, N., Solomon, Ferrante, D., Mitra, P.P. The marmoset S.G. Colour vision signals in subcortical brain architecture project: Sharing data on pathways: Spatial selectivity and interaction primate corticocortical connectivity through (or not) with brain rythms. European an open access web platform. Society for Conference on Visual Perception 2016. 28 Neuroscience 2016 Annual Meeting. 12-16 August - 1 September 2016; Barcelona, November 2016; San Diego, USA. Spain. 39. Sah, P. Population aging. McDonnell 29. Mattingley, J. Science of learning at the International Scholars Academy 6th University of Hong Kong. SummerFest 2016: International Symposium. 22-25 September Impact, Innovation and Integrity. 20 July 2016; Brisbane, Australia. 2016; Hong Kong, China.
56 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 40. Sah, P. Public health. McDonnell International 50. Sun, Y. Anatomy and physiology of the Scholars Academy 6th International central extended amygdala. Society for Symposium. 22-25 September 2016; Neuroscience 2016 Annual Meeting. 12-16 Brisbane, Australia. November 2016; San Diego, USA.
41. Sah, P. Neural circuits between the 51. Yang, D.P., Robinson, P.A. Low dimensional hippocampus, medial cortex and amygdala: dynamics for transitions from normal arousal three partners in the fear circuit. Third states to epileptic seizures. NeuroEng International Symposium on Brainnetome 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on Meets Genome. 4-6 November 2016; Haikou, Neuro-Engineering and Computational PRESENTATIONS China. Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia. 42. Sah, P. Connecting the dots: Understanding integrative brain function. Australasian NATIONAL PRESENTATIONS Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, 52. Arabzadeh, E. Neuronal activity underlying Australia. efficient sensory processing in the rodent cortex. Colloquium at the University of 43. Sah, P., Morris, J. Learning and memory Queensland. 27 May 2016; Brisbane, formation using partial reinforcement: an Australia. Animal Model of Feedback. SummerFest 2016: Impact, Innovation and Integrity. 20-22 53. Arabzadeh, E. Efficient sensory processing July 2016; Hong Kong, China. in the rodent vibrissal cortex. Monash Biomedicine Discoverey Institute Seminar 44. Sanz-Leon, P. An overview of numerical tools Series. 1 April 2016; Melbourne, Australia. for simulating brain dynamics. 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting. 2-7 54. Breakspear, M. Using neuroimaging to July 2016; Je Ju Island, South Korea. understand brain network disturbances in psychiatry. Biological Psychiatry Australia 45. Sanz-Leon, P. Integrating connectomics and Conference 2016. 13-14 October 2016; neural fields. 25th Annual Computational Newcastle, Australia. Neuroscience Meeting. 2-7 July 2016; Je Ju Island, South Korea. 55. Breakspear, M. Computational models of brain activity. MatLab Conference. 10-24 May 46. Sanz-Leon, P. An overview of numerical 2016; Brisbane, Australia. tools for simulating brain dynamics. 6th Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience 56. Breakspear, M. Prospective imaging study Conference. 24-27 November 2016; of ageing and dementia. NHMRC National Newcastle, Australia. Institute for Dementia Research Inaugural Meeting. 1-3 May 2016; Brisbane, Australia. 47. Shivdasani, M.N., Spencer, T.C., Halupka, K.J., Dumm, G., Thien, P., Epp, S., Brandli, 57. Egan, G. Keynote address. 3rd Annual STEM A., Abbott, C.J., Luu, C.D., Allen, P.J., Wong, Education Conference. 27-28 July 2016; Y.T., Cloherty, S.L., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt, Melbourne, Australia. A.N., Meffin, H., Fallon, J.B. Increasing the 58. Garrido, M. Predictive coding in sensory resolution of retinal prostheses through learning. QBI Neuroscience Seminar 2016. 12 current steering and current focusing. 4th October 2016; Brisbane, Australia. International Conference on Medical Bionics. 20-23 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia. 59. Mattingley, J. Public Lecture: What can psychology and neuroscience tell us about 48. Stuart, G.J. Contrasting roles of calcium- learning? Lessons from the Australian activated potassium channels on dendritic Science of Learning Research Centre. 2016 excitability and synaptic plasticity. EMBO Australian Psychological Society Congress. Workshop on Dendritic Anatomy, Molecules 13 September 2016; Melbourne, Australia. and Function. 18-21 June 2016; Crete, Greece. 60. Mattingley, J. Mechanisms of selective attention in health and disease. Biomedical 49. Stuart, G.J. Contrasting roles of calcium- Discovery Seminar Series, Monash University. activated potassium channels on dendritic 6 September 2016; Melbourne, Australia. excitability and synaptic plasticity. Institute for Science and Technology. 16 June 2016; Vienna, Austria.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 57 61. Postnova, S. Mathematical modelling of POSTER PRESENTATIONS arousal state dynamics. Monash Academy 69. Assadzadeh, S., Robinson, P.A. for Cross & Interdisciplinary Mathematical Synaptic homeostasis via plasticity in Applications. 16 March 2016; Melbourne, the corticothalamic system. NeuroEng Australia. 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on Neuro-Engineering and Computational 62. Robinson, P.A. The physical brain. NeuroEng Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on Brisbane, Australia. Neuro-Engineering and Computational PRESENTATIONS Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; 70. Chandra, A.J., Lee, S.C.S., Grünert, U. Brisbane, Australia. Calretinin immunoreactive ganglion cells in marmoset retina. Australasian Neuroscience 63. Sah, P. Opening address. MND Australia Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 Research Meeting. 21 October 2016; December 2016; Hobart, Australia. Brisbane, Australia. 71. Chaplin, T.A., Hagan, M.A., Price, N.S., Rosa, 64. Sah, P. How do we learn? What are the M.G.P., Lui, L.L. Neuronal contributions to biological systems that meditate learning? motion discrimination are strongly influenced Mind Brain Education Conference 2016. 25 by spiking rate, not tuning bandwidth. February 2016; Sydney, Australia. Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th 65. Sah, P. The amygdala, hippocampus and Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December medial prefrontal cortex: Three partners 2016; Hobart, Australia. in the fear circuit. NeuRA Invited Seminar 72. Cloherty, S.L., Hughes, N.J., Hietanen, Series. 26 September 2016; Sydney, Australia. M.A., Bhagavatula, P.S., Goodhill, G.J., 66. Skafidis, E. Printable electronics for Ibbotson, M.R. Sensory experience modifies biosensors. ARC Centre of Excellence in feature map relationships in visual cortex. Covergent Bio-Nano Science & Technology Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th Biosensor Symposium. 30 November 2016; Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December Melbourne, Australia. 2016; Hobart, Australia.
67. Stuart, G.J. Brain mechanics. Conversations 73. Deeba, F., Sanz-Leon, P., Robinson, P.A. Across the Creek. 20 May 2016; Canberra, Dynamics of absence seizures: Onset, Australia. amplitude and duration. NeuroEng 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on 68. Sun, Y. Dissection of an anxiety circuit in the Neuro-Engineering and Computational central extended amygdala. Queensland Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; Brain Institute, Postgraduate Student Brisbane, Australia. Syposium. 25 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia. 74. Eiber, C.D., Pietersen, A.N.J., Zeater, N., Solomon, S.G., Martin, P.R. Chromatic opponency and receptive field properties of blue-on cells in primate lateral geniculate nucleus. Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia.
75. Gabay, N., Robinson, P.A. Cortical geometry as the determinant of the structure of dominant brain eigenmodes and resting state networks: neural field analysis. NeuroEng 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on Neuro-Engineering and Computational Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia.
58 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 76. Gabay, N., Robinson, P.A. Cortical geometry 85. Lacy, T., Aquino, K., Robinson, P.A., Schira, as the determinant of the structure of M. Shock-like BOLD responses induced dominant brain eigenmodes and resting in the primary visual cortex: Theory and state networks: Neural field analysis. Fifth experiment. 22nd Annual Meeting of the Biennial Conference of Resting State Brain Organization for Human Brain Mapping. 26- Connectivity. 21-23 September 2016; Vienna, 30 June 2016; Geneva, Switzerland. Austria. 86. Lee, S.C.S., Aghajani, R.J., Martin, P.R., 77. Garrido, M. The effects of attention on neural Grünert, U. Quantification of rod pathway representations of environmental statistics. neurons in the human retina. Australasian PRESENTATIONS 22nd Annual Meeting of the Organization Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific for Human Brain Mapping. 26-30 June 2016; Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Geneva, Switzerland. Australia.
78. Ghodrati, M., Alwis, D.S., Price, N.S.C. Faster 87. Liang, A. The anti-neuroinflammatory effect responses under low-contrast stimulation in of apigenin: a pilot study in the GFAP-IL6 rat V1. Society for Neuroscience 2016 Annual neuroinflammation model. Australasian Meeting. 12-16 November 2016; San Diego, Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific USA. Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 79. Gu, Y., Gong, P. Sharp wave ripples as wave packets emerging from 88. MacLaurin, J.N., Robinson, P.A. Inference heterogeneous neural circuits. NeuroEng of structural connectivity from generalized 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on functional connectivity of brain networks. Neuro-Engineering and Computational NeuroEng 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; on Neuro-Engineering and Computational Brisbane, Australia. Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia. 80. Hadjidimitrakis, K., Bertozzi, F., Breveglieri, R., Galletti, C., Fattori, P. Temporal stability of 89. Martin, P.R., Pietersen, A.N.J., Zeater, N., reference frames in monkey area V6A during Cheong, S.K., Solomon, S.G. Effect of brain a reaching task in 3D space. Society for state on visual stimulus detectability in Neuroscience 2016 Annual Meeting. 12-16 lateral geniculate nucleus of anaesthetised November 2016; San Diego, USA. marmosets. Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and 81. Hagan, M.A., Chaplin, T.A., Huxlin, K.R., Ophthalmology (ARVO). 1-5 May 2016; Rosa, M.G.P., Lui, L.L. Fewer neurons in MT Seattle, USA. are direction selective to random dot stimuli after chronic V1 lesions in adult marmosets 90. Masri, R., Percival, K.A., Koizumi, A., Martin, monkeys. Society for Neuroscience 2016 P.R., Grünert, U. Characterization of ganglion Annual Meeting. 12-16 November 2016; San cell populations in marmoset retina. Diego, USA. Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 82. Hagan, M.A., Pesaran, B. Functional inhibiton 2016; Hobart, Australia. coordinates looking and reaching. Okinawa Computational Neurosceince Course. 13-30 91. Masri, R.A., Percival, K.A., Koizumi, A., June 2016; Okinawa, Japan. Martin, P.R., Grünert, U. Characterization of ganglion cell populations in marmoset retina. 83. Huang, H., Stuart, G.J. Cortical processing FASEB Science Research Conference, Retinal of binocular visual information in the mouse. Neurobiology and Visual Processing. 10-15 Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th July 2016; Keystone, USA. Annual Scientific Meeting. 2016; Hobart, Australia: 4-7 December. 92. Meffin, H., Hietanen, M., Cloherty, S.L., Ibbotson, M.R. Contrast dependent phase 84. Ibbotson, M.I., Yunzab, M., Hietanen, M.A., sensitivity of complex cells in primary Cloherty, S.L., Meffin, H. Dynamic receptive visual cortex. 25th Annual Computational field properties in primary visual cortex. 10th Neuroscience Meeting. 2-7 July 2016; Je Ju FENS Forum of Neuroscience 2016. 2-6 July Island, South Korea. 2016; Copenhagen, Denmark.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 59 93. Mendis, G.D., Morrisroe, E., Reid, C.A., 101. Ranjbar, Y., Arabzadeh, E. High-velocity Halgamuge, S., Petrou, S. Use of local field stimulation evokes “dense” population potentials of dissociated cultures grown on response in layer 2/3 vibrissal cortex. 29th multi-electrode arrays for pharmacological Annual Barrels Conference. 12 November assays. 38th Annual International Conference 2016; Los Angeles, USA. of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC). 16-20 August 2016; 102. Ranjbar, Y., Arabzadeh, E. High-velocity Florida, USA. stimulation evokes “dense” population response in layer 2/3 vibrissal cortex. Society PRESENTATIONS 94. Mukta, K., MacLaurin, J.N., Robinson, P.A. for Neuroscience 2016 Annual Meeting. 12- Neural field theory on the spherical brain. 16 November 2016; San Diego, USA. NeuroEng 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on Neuro-Engineering and Computational 103. Richards, K., Alwis, D., Arabzadeh, E., Price, Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; N.S.C. The neuronal and perceptual effects Brisbane, Australia. of visual masking. Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 95. Muller, E.J., van Albada, S.J., Kim, J.W., December 2016; Hobart, Australia. Robinson, P.A. Unified neural field theory of brain dynamics in Parkinson’s disease 104. Richards, K., Alwis, D., Arabzadeh, E., Price, and generalized epilepsies. NeuroEng N.S.C. The neuronal and perceptual effects 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on of visual masking. Society for Neuroscience Neuro-Engineering and Computational 2016 Annual Meeting. 12-16 November 2016; Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; San Diego, USA. Brisbane, Australia. 105. Robinson, P.A., Sanz-Leon, P., Drysdale, P.M., 96. Nasir Ahmad, S.N., Lee, S.C., Martin, P.R., Fung, F., Abeysuriya, R.G., Rennie, C.J., Zhao, Grünert, U. Two types of melanopsin- X. Neurofield: Computational modeling and expressing ganglion cells in the human simulation of large scale electrical activity retina. Australasian Neuroscience Society of the brain. 22nd Annual Meeting of the 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 Organization for Human Brain Mapping. 26- December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 30 June 2016; Geneva, Switzerland.
97. Pang, J.C., Robinson, P.A., Aquino, K. 106. Robinson, P.A., Sanz-Leon, P., Drysdale, Modal decomposition of spatiotemporal P.M., Fung, F., Abeysuriya, R.G., Rennie, hemodynamic response function. 22nd C.J., Zhao, X. Neurofield: A C++ library for Annual Meeting of the Organization for fast simulation of 2D neural field models. Human Brain Mapping. 26-30 June 2016; 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience Geneva, Switzerland. Meeting. 2-7 July 2016; Je Ju Island, South Korea. 98. Pietersen, A.N.J., Eiber, C.D., Zeater, N., Solomon, S.G., Martin, P.R. Correlation of 107. Sanz-Leon, P. Nonuniform neural field local field potential in lateral geniculate modeling of seizure spreading on the nucleus and visual cortex in anaesthetised cortical surface. 22nd Annual Meeting of the marmosets. Australasian Neuroscience Organization for Human Brain Mapping. 26- Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 30 June 2016; Geneva, Switzerland. December 2016; Hobart, Australia. 108. Sanz-Leon, P., Robinson, P.A. An analytical 99. Postnova, S., Lockley, S.W., Robinson, P.A. study of the steady states and gloval Sleep propensity under forced desynchrony dynamics of the corticothalamic system. in a model of arousal state dynamics. 23rd 22nd Annual Meeting of the Organization Congress of the European Sleep Research for Human Brain Mapping. 26-30 June 2016; Society. 13-16 September 2016; Bologna, Geneva, Switzerland. Italy. 109. Sanz-Leon, P., Robinson, P.A. Corticothalamic 100. Rahman, A.S., Pietersen, A.N.J., Eiber, C.D., dynamics: Steady states and their structure Zeater, N., Dreher, B., Solomon, S.G., Martin, in the synaptic coupling parameter space. P.R. Functional properties of on-off cells in 25th Annual Computational Neuroscience the dorsal lateral geniculate of anaesthetised Meeting. 2-7 July 2016; Je Ju Island, South marmosets. Australasian Neuroscience Korea. Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia.
60 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 110. Tang, M. Do repetition suppression and expectation have different effects on the fidelity of sensory representations? 6th Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. 24-27 November 2016; Newcastle, Australia.
111. Townsend, R., Solomon, S.G., Martin, P.R., Gong, P. Evoked propogating neural waves: Mechanisms and functional roles. PRESENTATIONS NeuroEng 2016: 9th Australasian Workshop on Neuro-Engineering and Computational Neuroscience. 28-29 November 2016; Brisbane, Australia.
112. Yang, D.P., Mackenzie-Sell, L., Karanjai, A., Robinson, P.A. Wake-sleep transition as a noisy bifurcation. 9th Dynamic Days Asia- Pacific. 14-17 December 2016; Hong Kong, China.
113. Yang, D.P., Robinson, P.A. Low-dimensional dynamics for transitions form normal arousal states to epileptic seizures. 9th Dynamic Days Asia-Pacific. 14-17 December 2016; Hong Kong, China.
114. Zavitz, E., Yu, H.-H., Rosa, M.G.P., Price, N.S.C. Task- and time-dependence of population codes for motion in marmoset MT. Society for Neuroscience 2016 Annual Meeting. 12-16 November 2016; San Diego, USA.
115. Zeater, N., Munn, B.R., Solomon, S.G., Dreher, B., Cheong, S.K., Gong, P., Martin, P.R. Pairwise and population dynamics of correlated spiking in marmoset lateral geniculate nucleus. Australasian Neuroscience Society 36th Annual Scientific Meeting. 4-7 December 2016; Hobart, Australia.
116. Zhu, S., Allitt, B., Samuel, A., Rosa, M.G.P., Rajan, R. Neuronal representation of vocalisation pitch in marmoset primary auditory cortex. Australasian Auditory Neuroscience Workshop. 4 December 2016; Hobart, Australia.
117. Zhu, S., Allitt, B., Samuel, A., Rosa, M.G.P., Rajan, R. Neuronal representation of vocalisation pitch in marmoset primary auditory cortex. Students of Brain Research Symposium. 18 November 2016; Melbourne, Australia.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 61 Media
MEDIA ARTICLES The Insider – Calling all Monash Startups, 24/8/16. Gary Egan (CI). 7 News – Australian researchers hope to prove benefits of brain training, 23/9/16. Jason UQ News – Stimulating possibilities arise from Mattingley (CI), Paul Dux (AI) and Hannah brain study, 7/9/16. Jason Mattingley (CI). Filmer (Affiliate Post-Doc). Queensland Brain Institute News – Learning The Age – Women in science journey to Antartica and memory: Q&A with Professor Jason in fight to save the planet, 16/7/16. Sharna Mattingley, Cognitive Neuroscientist, 8/7/16. Jamadar (Fellow). Jason Mattingley (CI).
The Herald Sun – Bionic eye: Melbourne Queensland Brain Institute News – Researchers preclinical testing a step closer, 11/11/16. put brain training to the test, 24/8/16. Jason Michael Ibbotson (CI), David Garret (Affiliate Mattingley (CI). Academic) and Hamish Meffin (Fellow). Queensland Brain Institute News – Kids The Guardian – Kids, sport, concussion, and the are more susceptible to brain injury, and long lasting effects of minor brain injury, concussion has implications beyond what we 1/9/16. Pankaj Sah (CI). thought, 29/8/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
The Conversation – Kids are more susceptible to Queensland Brain Institute News – brain injury, and concussion has implications Schizophrenia researcher wins UQ award, beyond what we thought, 29/8/16. Pankaj 14/9/16. Marta Garrido (CI). Sah (CI). EXPERT COMMENTARY The Conversation – Why psychology lost its soul: everything comes from the brain, 23/9/16. 7:30, ABC – New study examines science of how George Paxinos (CI). kids learn and the best way to teach, 21/4/16. Jason Mattingley (CI) and Pankaj Sah (CI). The Conversation – Brain stimulation is getting popular with gamers – is it time to regulate ABC News – New study examines science of how it? 17/10/16. Adrian Carter (Coordinator). kids learn and the best way to teach, 21/4/16. Jason Mattingley (CI) and Pankaj Sah (CI). The Conversation – Information before regulation to make amateur brain stimulation safer, SBS News – Greater gender diversity in science 7/11/16. Rachel Nowak (Coordinator). benefits us all, 8/3/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
Medical Xpress – Antibiotic resistance and brain The Age – The evidence is in: greater gender pathways underpinned by a massive engine, diversity in science benefits us all, 8/3/16. 29/2/16. Marta Garrido (CI) Pankaj Sah (CI).
Medical Xpress – Stimulating possibilities arise The Herald Sun – Doctors urge better education from brain study, 7/9/16. Jason Mattingley of combat sports contestants in risk of brain (CI) injury, 9/10/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
Australian Educator – Learning Labs, 29/11/16. The Sydney Morning Herald – The evidence Jason Mattingley (CI) is in: greater gender diversity in science benefits us all, 8/3/16. Pankaj Sah (CI). Westside News – Top minds challenge students, 15/6/16. Jason Mattingley (CI) The Sydney Morning Herald – Why we’re losing And Marta Garrido (CI). things more often, 23/5/16. Jason Mattingley (CI).
62 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT The Courier Mail – Sport stars join forces to raise MEDIA awareness of concussion and head injuries, 18/6/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
Australian Financial Review – New super computer at Monash University simplifies science into pictures, 28/2/16. Marta Garrido (CI).
The Conversation – The evidence is in: greater gender diversity in science benefits us all, 8/3/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
Brisbane Times – The evidence is in: greater gender diversity in science benefits us all, 8/3/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
ABC Radio National – The neuroscience of learning, 28/8/16. Jason Mattingley (CI) and Pankaj Sah (CI).
ABC Radio Brisbane – Memory, 22/1/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
ABC Radio Melbourne – How the eye works, 20/6/16. Michael Ibbotson (CI).
ABC Radio Goulburn Murray – Memory, 26/7/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
ABC Radio Brisbane – QBI hosts Brisbane afternoon show with Kelly Higgins-Devine, 13/9/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
Radio 2SER FM Sydney – Minor concussions a big blow to young children, 26/9/16. Pankaj Sah (CI).
Peaks, OTE History Channel (Greece) – George Paxinos Interview, 2/6/16. George Paxinos (CI).
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 63 Awards
AWARDS DISTINGUISHED AWARDS Sharna Jamadar (Fellow) – Awarded the 2016 Distinguished Early Career award by the George Paxinos (CI) – Received the British Society of Psychophysiological Research, Medical Association Illustrated Book Award in recognition of her contributions to for Atlas of the Human Brain, an annual psychophysiology research. award recognising outstanding contributions to medical literature. Sharna Jamadar (Fellow) - Selected as one of 76 women of influence in science to partake in George Paxinos (CI) – Awarded an Honorary ‘Homeward Bound’, a year-long leadership Doctorate and Professorship by the Ionian program, including a 20 day voyage around University, Greece, in recognition of his Antarctica. scientific contribution and collaboration with the University. STUDENT AWARDS
Steve Petrou (CI) – Nominated and elected Matias Maturana (Affliate Postdoc) – Awarded as a Fellowship of the Academy of Health the Mehdelsohn Prize for Neuroscience and Medical Science, in recognition of his for the best PhD in Neuroscience at The distinguished professional achievement and University of Melbourne. outstanding leadership in the science of health and medicine. Subha Nasir Ahmad (Hons Student) – Awarded Dreher Prize for outstanding achievement Jason Mattingley (CI) – Awarded the Monash in research during the Honours year of a University Distinguished Alumni Award from Bachelor of Science or Medical Sciences, the Biomedical and Psychological Sciences. University of Sydney. The award recognises his integrity and ability to inspire others to strive for excellence, PRESENTATION AWARDS exceptional contribution in his professional – Best Poster at The field, community leadership, and the ability Matthew Tang (Fellow) Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society to inspire students to reach their highest 2016 Conference. potential. Natalie Zeater (Affliate Post-Doc) – Best Talk Michael Ibbotson (CI) – Awarded the Kevin at the Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences Cahill award for Most Interesting Research in Symposium, University of Sydney. the field of vision science, an annual award selected by the Directors of the Rebecca Iris Zhu (Scholar) – Student Poster Prize, Students L Cooper Medical Research Foundation, of Brain Research (SOBR). recognising the most interesting or innovative research in the field of Vision Sciences.
Marta Garrido (CI) – Awarded University of Queensland’s Foundation Research Excellence Award, awarded to the best and brightest researchers demonstrating excellence and promise of future success in research, and the leadership potential of individual young researchers in their respective fields.
Brain Function CoE Fellow Sharna Jamadar receiving the 'Distinguished Early Career award' from the Society for Psychophysiological Research (Image supplied and permissions granted by the Society for Psychophysiological Research).
64 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT TRAVEL AWARDS Rania Masri (Scholar) – Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing Conference Travel Nafseh Atapour (Fellow) – Biomedicine Award, Federation of American Societies for Discovery Institute Travel Award, Monash Experimental Biology. University. Subha Nasir Ahmad (Hons Student) – Young Nafseh Atapour (Fellow) – Gender Equity Travel Researcher Travel Award, Australasian Support Grant, Monash University. Neuroscience Society.
– AWARDS Ashleigh Chandra (Masters Student) Lena Oestreich (Affliate Post-Doc) – Early Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, Career Researcher Travel Award, ARC Centre University of Sydney. of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. – Early Career Researcher Farah Deeba (Scholar) James Pang (Scholar) – Postgraduate Research Travel Award, ARC Centre of Excellence for Support Scheme, University of Sydney. Integrative Brain Function. Abrar Rahman (Hons Student) – Young Calvin Eiber (Fellow) – Early Career Researcher Researcher Travel Award, Australasian Travel Award, ARC Centre of Excellence for Neuroscience Society. Integrative Brain Function. Elizabeth Zavitz (Affliate Post-Doc) – Early Natasha Gabay (Scholar) – Early Career Career Researcher Travel Award, ARC Centre Researcher Travel Award, ARC Centre of of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. CENTRE AWARDS Natasha Gabay (Scholar) – Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, University of Lyn Beazley Award for Outstanding Sydney. Contribution awarded to Jessica McFadyen (Scholar). Marta Garrido (CI) – Science Pathways 2016 Future Leaders Forum Travel Award, David Van Essen Award for Outstanding Early Australian Academy of Science. Career Researcher awarded to Elizabeth Zavitz (Affiliate Post-Doc). Maureen Hagan (Affliate Post-Doc) – Early Career Researcher Travel Award, ARC Centre Amanda Caples Award for Outstanding Staff of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function. Member awarded to Roxane Jemison (Node Administrator). Maureen Hagan (Affliate Post-Doc) – Biomedicine Discovery Institute Travel Award, Ulf Eysel Award for Most Highly Cited Paper Monash University. awarded to Hannah Filmer (Affiliate Post- Doc), Paul Dux (AI) and Jason Mattingley (CI). Andy Liang (Affliate Post-Doc) – Young Investigators Award, Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry.
Jessica McFayden (Scholar) – Early Career Researcher Travel Award, ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function.
Farshad Mansouri (AI) – Biomedicine Discovery Institute Travel Award, Monash University.
Rania Masri (Scholar) – Young Researcher Travel Award, Australasian Neuroscience Society.
Rania Masri (Scholar) – Early Career Researcher Travel Award, ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function.
Rania Masri (Scholar) – Postgraduate Research Support Scheme, University of Sydney.
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 65 Performance KPIs Target %
Performance KPI’s Target Actual
Performance KPI’s % Actual PERFORMANCE KPIs Publication Quantity – with Centre acknowledgment Training or inclusion as an author affliation Students mentored 24 73 304% Total number of publications 19 65 342% Centre run mentoring programs 2 2 100% Books 0 2 200% National/intl. workshops Book chapters 0 4 400% organsied by the Centre 3 9 300%
Journal articles 14 57 407% Number of Centre attendees at Centre run courses 24 28 117% Conference papers in refereed intl. conference proceedings 3 2 67% Number of professional training courses attended 24 24 100% Conference papers (non refereed) 2 0 0% International Activities Publication Quality – with Centre acknowledgment or inclusion as an author affliation Int. collaborating institutions* 30 66 220%
Average impact factor for Countries involved in collaboration* 10 24 240% publications* 3.20 4.72 148% International visitors 5 52 1040% % articles with impact factor >2 75% 82% 109% Countries from which international visitors originated* 6 11 183% % articles with impact factor >3* 60% 72% 120% Invited International talks 16 38 238%
Research Impact Overseas visits by Centre personnel* 20 43 215% Citations 45 490 1089% Visits to overseas lab facilities Total web hits for online articles by Centre personnel 16 23 144% – (data available for 36 articles) 450 47,598 10577% Number of countries visited Average web hits per online article by Centre personnel* 9 19 211% – (data available for 36 articles)* 50 1,322 2644% Impact Average Altmetric Score* 2 20.64 1032% Public awareness/outreach programs 5 14 280% Personnel Public lectures 2 7 350% Early career researchers 8 45 563% Education for schools programs 1 3 300% Post-doctoral researchers 16 55 344% Mentorship programs 1 2 200% Postgraduate students 16 67 419% Online portals/programs 1 2 200% Postgraduate completions (Completion times 3yrs, 3.75yrs, Talks given open to the public 24 16 67% 4yrs, 4.5yrs, 4.83yrs, 5.42yrs) 2 6 300% Government, Industry, Business, New honours students 8 6 75% Community briefngs 2 7 350%
Awards and Media Brain Dialogue website hits 7500 24,083 321% National/ International awards 1 40 4000% Brain Dialogue website sessions 2000 10,262 513%
Media articles 1 18 1800% Brain Dialogue website users 1000 6,951 695%
Invited expert commentary in Interdisciplinary Research 0 18 1800% the media* Examples of interdisciplinary Media Releases (traditional) 2 3 150% research programs 3 9 300%
Media Releases (Brain Dialogue Multi-author papers/ posters Discovery pieces)* 15 14 93% across groups 3 33 1100%
*Internal Targets
66 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT PUBLICATIONS QTY PERSONNEL
Target Actual Target Actual Journal Articles Early Career Researchers 8 45
TARGET 14 ACTUAL 57 Postdoctoral Researchers Book Chapters 16 0 4 55 PERFORMANCE KPIs TARGET 0 ACTUAL 4 Postgraduate Students Books 16 0 TARGET 0 ACTUAL 2 67 Quantity (with acknowledgment or inclusion of the Centre as an author affiliation) Quantity (with acknowledgment or inclusion of the Centre
RESEARCH IMPACT Target Actual Citations Average Web Hits Per Article Target 50 Target Actual 45 Actual 490 1089% 1322
INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES IMPACT
No. Countries Involved in Collaboration Gov., industry, business Target & community briefings Actual Target Public Actual 24 Actual 1 7 Lectures TARGET Target 10 School Education Programs 2
No. Intl. Collaborating Institutions ACTUAL
TARGET 1 TARGET 3
Brain Dialogue Website Hits
30 66 24,083 7
ACTUAL 7500 TARGET TARGET
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 67 Finances
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENDITURE FINANCES Funds Carried Forward From Previous Year 2014 2015 2016 Est. 2017 2,741,132 3,323,469 3,352,518 Adjustment to Carry Forward From Previous Year 2014 2015 2016 Est. 2017 1,976 INCOME ARC grant Income 2,943,492 2,996,205 3,047,140 2,857,142
Australian National University cash contribution 111,324 111,324 111,124 111,324
Monash University cash contribution 318,434 318,434 371,625 334,546
University of New South Wales cash contribution 1 - 4,445 148,002 49,334
University of Queensland cash contribution 120,390 206,800 120,390 160,521
University of Melbourne cash contribution 153,706 155,579 146,444 153,707
University of Sydney cash contribution 132,711 241,810 153,706 153,707
Human Brain Project (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne-EPFL) cash contribution 2 - 25,000 - 25,000
International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) cash contribution 3,142 4,335 22,189 4,800
Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) Berghofer cash contribution - - 42,028 15,000
Bridge to Mass Challenge 225,000 25,000
Other income 4,955 5,700 4,130 8,000
TOTAL INCOME AND CARRY FORWARD 3,788,154 6,810,764 7,717,223 7,250,599
EXPENDITURE Personnel 657,528 1,892,966 2,585,168 3,085,168
Consultants 21,287 392,266 352,984 380,000
Scholarships & support 28,274 115,058 37,517 80,000
Purchased Equipment 35,517 132,753 147,279 190,000
Lease/ Hired Equipment 4,163 65,607 4,583 59,000
Maintenance (IT and lab) 429 78,640 2,889 60,000
Research Materials / Experiments 107,769 304,054 172,246 325,000
Travel and conferences 102,608 319,067 275,872 369,000
Sponsorships - scientifc workshops & conferences 4,500 10,429 11,000 15,000
Non-research Initiatives 80,217 151,752 259,710 320,000
INCF Subscription - - 339,905 339,905
Other Expenditure 4,730 22,727 175,552 125,000
TOTAL INCOME AND CARRY FORWARD 1,047,022 3,485,319 4,364,705 5,348,073
BALANCE CARRIED FORWARD TO FUTURE YEARS 2,741,132 3,325,445 3,352,518 1,902,526
1 UNSW states that contributions of $49,334 pa for 2014 & 2015 have been processed in 2016. 2 Human Brain Project cash contribution for 2016 will be included in the 2017 annual report. These figures replace those previously reported for 2014.
68 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT Finances
IN KIND CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PERIOD 1/1/2016 - 31/12/2016 FINANCES ADMINISTERING AND COLLABORATING ORGANISATIONS Monash University 756,141
The Australian National University 246,359
University of New South Wales 100,000
University of Melbourne 197,856
University of Sydney 323,696
University of Queensland 494,082
TOTAL 2,118,134
PARTNER ORGANISATIONS Brain Science Institute, Riken 12,500
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 12,500
Duke University 25,000
International School for Advanced Studies 12,500
Karolinska Institute/INCF 125,503
National Institute for Health and Medical Research 12,500
National Institute for Medical Research 26,000
National Institute of Mental Health 12,500
New York University 21,703
QIMR 155,013
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/Human Brain Project 57,000
Weill Cornell Medical College 14,756
TOTAL 487,475
TOTAL 2,605,609
BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT 69 Acronyms ACRONYMS AI Associate Investigator LGN Lateral geniculate nucleus ABBC Australasian Brain Bee Challenge MASSIVE Multi-modal Australian ScienceS Imaging and ABI Australian Brain Initiative Visualization Environment AGM Annual general meeting MBAP Marmoset Brain Architecture ANS Australasian Neuroscience Society Project ANU Australian National University MRI Magnetic resonance imaging ARC Australian Research Council OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development CI Chief Investigator PET Positron emission tomography CoE Centre of excellence PI Partner Investigator DREADDs Designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs QBI Queensland Brain Institute DTI Diffusion tensor imaging QIMR Queensland Institute of Medical Research ECR Early career researcher SISSA Scuola Internazionale Superiore di EEG Electroencephalography Studi Avanzati EPFL École polytechnique fédérale de Students of Brain Research Lausanne SOBR tDCS Transcranial direct current fMRI Functional magnetic resonance stimulation imaging TMS Transcranial magnetic stimulation HBP Human Brain Project IIT Integrated Information Theory INCF International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility
70 BRAIN FUNCTION COE ANNUAL REPORT INSIDE BACK COVER FRONT COVER ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR INTEGRATIVE BRAIN FUNCTION ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR INTEGRATIVE BRAIN FUNCTION
Annual Report 2016 ANNUAL REPORT 2016
ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function 770 Blackburn Rd Monash University VIC 3800 Australia cibf.edu.au